Originaltext: Flo Weissmann
Fast forward to December 2005, when the artists Elke Maier and Georg Planer were intruding into the archaeologists' excavation work in the sacred halls of the Wilten Church., a favorite visiting place for citizens and tourists alike.
Some meters beyond the church entrance, a huge hole is gaping, because archaeologists used the opportunity of a two-year church renovation to dig for graves and traces of ancient buildings in the deepest layers of the church, to peak down into the very intestines of history.
In the centre of church, the cave reveals its secret: far down into the abyss, human-like figurines are lying, one next to the other, just like mummies. Their bodies form a circle around the excavation hill. The sculptor Georg Planer created them from the excavations of the archaeologists with soil, debris, and bone fragments. They are one part of this artistic intervention.
Now, as the sun enters the stage, it makes yet the other component of the spectacle visible: thousands of thin white threads, all the way down to the mysterious abyss, running from the highest ledges and balustrades of the church down to the sunken mummies at the bottom. An ordered web, filling the whole space of the church like a three-dimensional veil waiting to breathe some new life into this gigantic space.
This process is ushered in by the sun. The first rays dance through the upper windows, meeting the threads and enlightening parts of them. Every minute, the picture changes. The higher the sun climbs, the deeper the light flows into the church. The space of the church, usually just a void between the floor and the ceiling, is full of cascading waterfalls.
This spectacle is an airy installation, created by the artist Elke Maier, which spreads a quiet variation of magic.
The light flows even deeper into the cave; it finds new threads, leaves drops, and old constellations are dropped to form new ones.
Together with, Georg Planer, Elke Maier created a prism that is breaking the secrets of life and Earth,the sunlight enabling a multilayered conversation about human existence.
(Floo Weissmann, aus: airline magazine "welcome air")