Art is everywhere here
... surprises in the most amazing places – in unwitting moments, unthought, unsuspecting, inspiring.
Art is everywhere at the ICARO. Even where you would not expect it, a work of art by the family artist Hubert Kostner, by Roland Senoner or Philipp Messner makes its way through the walls of the house... and right at the entrance, our Art Wall welcomes every guest with a series of blown glass bottles shaped like tears on an lit rack. "Tear Dryer", a sculpture by Michael Sailstorfer is a tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s "Bottle Dryer" (1914). Art at the ICARO permeates each and every space as well as every moment of the day. A discovery path that calls for instinct and curiosity to discover the unexpected and be in awe.
Hubert Kostner
Polychromos-Inlay
Christophorus
2020
garage
With conceptional cuts, Hubert Kostner creates abstract versions of commercial woodcarvings, thereby elevating the woodcarvings of the Grödenertal valley into the contemporary art context. He calls this transformation through “an essential act of sculpture” – the removal of matter – upcycling. Kostner inserted a section of a Christophorus raised relief directly into the wall formwork and poured in concrete. The piece was then coloured using Polychromos coloured pencils, which gave the sculpture its name and served as a reference for its design.
Hubert Kostner
Posta Prioritaria
2004
Suite Posta Prioritaria
Using widely circulated posters, brochures and postcards, the tourism industry promotes idyllic panoramic views so that they can be enjoyed by tourists and photographed again and again as keepsakes. In his small-format sculptural works, Hubert Kostner traces the flattened idylls on the postcards in search of the lost spatial dimension.
[Text: Marion Piffer Damiani, President of the Museion Foundation]
Hubert Kostner
Spuren im Schnee
2015
Suite Spuren im Schnee In the Alpine winter, the mountain slopes are covered in snow, but that does not mean they are untouched. A dense network of lines and tracks criss-crosses the slopes – marks that skiers have made on nature. Hubert Kostner draws the skiers’ tracks across the canvas in black polyethylene, a plastic material that is used, among other things, as a speed-enhancing ski surface. During the “Concept Assembly” exhibition at the Museion in Bolzano, the “tracks in the snow” were also on display on the top floor of the two cable car cabins of the Schnals cable car.
Philipp Messner
CLOUDS
2016
Suite Clouds To create CLOUDS, a performative installation, Philipp Messner placed snow cannons in urban spaces in Munich for a period of over a month. By adding paint, they produced coloured artificial snow, which over time formed a picturesque, walkable field made up of crystalline layers of colour. The project deals with notions of artificiality and reality and deconstructs what is perceived as the (natural) environment. A photographic series (34x23cm each) captures the temporary artwork.
Roland Senoner
Feathers
2020
Suite Feathers Roland Senoner covers an entire wall in Greek mythology, referencing this hotel’s namesake: Daedalus and his son Icarus flee from the Minotaur’s labyrinth with homemade wings, two feathers detach themselves from the nest towards the sky, then the overconfident Icarus flies too close to the sun and plummets. Senoner’s feathers move out of the room and become the joy of flying and colourful thought in the sky. The artist engraved and painted the nest as a creative source of life directly into and onto the wall.
Hubert Kostner
Sasmujel
2019
Foto: Helmut Rier
Dining room At an elevation of 2,400 metres, only accessible on foot, the temporary sculpture “Sasmujel” 2019 was a tribute to the first ascent of the Langkofel mountain 150 years earlier. Hubert Kostner wrapped a total of 10,500 metres of climbing rope – some new, some used – around the mighty boulder (approx. 4x5x6m). The artist restrains the mountain just as it captivates people. Ropes, as the most important tool of alpinists and as a social component of a climbing team, soften the hard, rough surface of the rock. With this second skin, the angular solitaire turns into a “soft rock” – “Sasmujel” in Ladin.
Simone Eißrich
Über den Dingen
2022
Outdoor area
Three erratic boulders from the area around Seiser Alm rest on just as many pedestals to see the world from a new perspective. This act of alienation places them in a new context and helps them gain unexpected attention, as they spend most of their “life” – millions of years – on the ground. Bob Dylan used the metaphor of the “rolling stone” to describe the loneliness of all those who rumble through the world on their own. Here they come together in a group of three – three is company, after all – and become part of the lived environment.
[Text: Adina Guarnieri, Curator]