An era of work and (artistic) creativity

intrinsic to the Sculptors’ House,

the home of the ‘Symposium of European Sculptors’,

has ended!

KARL PRANTL (1923-2010), the doyen of abstract sculptureand founder of the globally renowned symposium concept of St. Margarethen, whose exemplary ‘Sculptors’ House’, the home of the association, is under threat.

In August, the ‘Symposium of European Sculptors’ (SEB) was deprived of its home – the exemplary Sculptors’ House on the hilltop in St. Margarethen in Burgenland. An eviction notice brought by the Esterhazy Holding (under its General Director Dr. Stefan Ottrubay), which required that the ‘property’ should be immediately handed over to Esterhazy, the landowner, was confirmed by the OGH, Austria’s Supreme Court.

The judgement exclusively addressed the Sculptors’ House as a rental object and ignored the real substance – the unique symbiosis of art, architecture and the natural environment. Embedded in the complex sculptural oeuvre that graces the hilltop in St. Margarethen, which was created in several phases after 1959 and gave rise to an ongoing, international movement, the Sculptors’ House is a place of communication and a ‘think tank’ whose impact continues to be felt far beyond the confines of St. Margarethen.

The issue at the heart of the court proceedings was the recurring problem of how to deal with the reciprocal rights and, hence, the right to have a say, of the diverse owners of listed objects. The courts failed to take advantage of the opportunity to draw up a general rule that could be applied to this right to have a say and left it to the owners to resolve the demoralising daily disputes about who is responsible for what and who has to agree to which measures involving the object that they jointly own, in this case a protected art ensemble. The urgent need for a ruling in such matters is demonstrated by not only the stone sculptures of St. Margarethen.

In the constant conflict between economic and artistic interests it is probably assumed that the association, with its exclusive commitment to artistic ideals, will eventually run out of steam in the face of the economic power of the Esterhazy Foundation. Have we in Austria, in line with the general trend, also now arrived at a new crossroads at which “the rights of the more powerful are confirmed”?

Establishing this contentually demanding connection between ‘Social Sculpture & Nature’ (Joseph Beuys) would have been an extremely interesting legal challenge! But it appears, does it not, that this isn’t an issue in Austria? That non-profit is unceremoniously converted into profit in the interests of the landowner? That the contemplative home of an association is to be degraded to a foyer of ‘The New’? We are from the new Austria!

Such particularly challenging situations as this, in which freely-accessible artistic and natural environments have encouraged this synergy for decades in a wide variety of ways – supported by great public interest and public money – appear too complex to understand, even for an Austrian judicial system whose role is to defend the rule of law.

Now the stone sculptures, which still belong to the SEB, are ‘hovering’ in a ‘listed space’ and are increasingly being appropriated by the ‘Esterhazy Opera Empire’ in line with the demands of the market and with the new logo ‘PIEDRA’. The artists and creators of St. Margarethen would turn in their graves! 

In an age of kitsch, profit and folksy patriotism, a process such as that which is currently taking place in St. Margarethen represents an irretrievable loss of autonomy in terms of both artistic creativity and communication. It lacks any sort of (art) historical factual justification and can only be described as a ‘hostile act’ of authorship that runs counter to the symposium concept.

Over the course of the past few years, a wide range of valuable symposia and events took place in the Sculptors’ House, triggering a wider debate on the ‘matter in hand’. These included the ‘International ChoreoLab Austria,’ the ‘Literaturraum im Bildhauerhaus’, cross-media workshops and conclaves organised by prominent universities in the areas of art and architecture, all of which found the location conducive to the generation of new ideas about communicating knowledge.

As Chairperson of the association the choreographer Sebastian Prantl (the son of the sculptor and founder) now faces the difficult task of countering the appropriation of the sculptures – in the form of a misplaced ‘museum-like optimisation’ – by a private holding with its own marketing interests. (The newly operating car park on the hillside does not bode well for the future.)

A total of 120 international artists created over 150 sculptures from the special calcareous sandstone in St. Margarethen in the years after 1959. Seen as a whole, this is an art historical work which is beyond comparison. Today, around 50 of the sculptures can still be found where they were created, distributed across the south-western slope of the hill.

Objective

• A superordinate and yet to be created ‘AUSTRIAN ART TRUST’ (together with an upgraded AUSTRIAN FEDERAL MONUMENTS OFFICE, IMAGE RIGHTS…. and the AUSTRIAN GALLERIES as partners and guarantors…) would provide a solution that could follow a discussion between equals.
• The Province of Burgenland and the Federal Government are urged to work with the SEB to ensure that this unique artistic and natural environment remains freely accessible to the public as part of the ‘Neusiedlersee UNESCO World Heritage Site’.
• The ‘European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018’ was proclaimed by the European Union (EU) as a year of awareness of European history and identity. Its objective is to highlight to society not only the role of cultural heritage but also the importance of preserving and protecting this and ensuring that it remains accessible. St. Margarethen would be a prime example of substantive art-historical and multi-generational reappraisal and sensitisation!
• Should not the quarry of St. Margarethen – as the ‘cradle’ of and material depot for Vienna – have long since been reserved as the exclusive source of stone for St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the Ringstraße (in the same way that, for instance, Milan Cathedral also has its own quarry in order to guarantee any future restoration work)?

Friederike Mayröcker (Poet)

….. “there are countless examples of people being turned into stone. Thus, at midday, at certain hilly places in the region, a breeze is said to blow, whose breath immediately transforms entire herds to stone. The stones will scream” …..

(Aus einem Stein entsprungen: Aus einem Verwandtschaftshimmel: on Karl Prantl’s work in stone)

Friedrich Cerha (Composer)

The ensemble of stones on the hilltop in St. Margarethen created under the aegis of the Symposium of European Sculptors, which was founded by my friend Karl Prantl in 1959, is the most conspicuous documentation of a movement for renewal in our cultural life that was established during this period on the initiative and under the responsibility of Austrian artists in every field (the founding of the ensemble “die reihe” in music and “Forum Stadtpark” in literary and intellectual matters) and that opened the door to international cultural circles.

The entire complex of stones in this natural setting exudes the collective formative will of its creators and, aside from the artistic value of the individual elements, represents a significant piece of Austrian cultural and contemporary history. Leaving these in their present form and allowing them to be experienced in a way that does justice to their spirit appears to me to be the inescapable duty of those responsible for conservation in Austria.

Anna Kubach-Wilmsen (Sculptor)

Co-initiator of the Symposium Tivoli near Rome, founder of the 'Fondation Kubach-Wilmsen' - a stone sculpture museum at Bad Münster am Stein/Rheinland-Pfalz, designed by the Japanese architect Tadeo Ando

In the 2000 years of European art history, the stone was always material for form and sculpture, beginning with the Romans, then in the Middle Ages and in modern times. The stone was rediscovered since 1959 at the Symposium of European Sculptors of St. Margarethen in Burgenland. It was no longer the material of the form of the sculpture, but the form itself - sculptures became visual material of the stone. The stone as representation of power, politics, religion and contemporary history was a thing of the past.

In St. Margarethen the stone became present. When Wolfgang Kubach and I finished our study of sculpture at the Academy in Munich in 1965, thus approaching stone as our working material, our colleagues contemptuously said, 'They want to go back to Adam and Eve'. While the art market discussed the abstract sculpture made of plastic, stainless steel, plexiglass, scrap metal etc., St. Margarethen had created a space for sculptors processing the stone. Karl Prantl had paved the way for all of us, thus the path was free. Today, the question is asked over and over again about the origin of the green movement across Europe. The sculptors of St. Margarethen laid the first track in 1959. The sculptors came from all over Europe and finally from all over the world, free, without assignment, without their manifesti. Stone sculptures were created, first in the quarry and then in the open landscape around the hill of St. Margarethen. The stones became there part of the landscape. The sculptors unraveled the stones and set them up in the context of the specific environment, the landscape, the plants and animals, and last but not least, in the free living space of people without charge. The sculptor's house let the sculptors grow together and was accommodation and home equally.Our first sculpture in the International Sculpture Symposium Kaiserslautern 1970 was a large earth vein (350 x 150 x 100 cm), a rock that grew out of the earth and bent itself back into the earth. This stone was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with Karl Prantl. And our second home was the sculptor's house of St. Margarethen.

With many stones in the earth.

Anna Maria Kupper (Sculptor) Visarte Switzerland

I was young, I was brave, I was confident. So in 1971, I applied for the European Sculptor’s Symposium in St. Margarethen in Burgenland.

As a young Swiss, still a student at the Free Academy in The Hague, I was invited, along with Kenghiro Azuma, Milena Lah, Alois Mandl, Ratko Petric and Heinz Pistol.

We were a good team, each one individual, and yet all together. The sculptor's house was our home and residence for two months. We cooked together, we ate together, we talked on long nights. After two months, the hill was another one, a new world emerged with these six new works. A world to walk, to meditate, to play, to rejoice. Whether winter or summer, the works on the hill change the landscape, there are new worlds. And these worlds should persist, the world on the hill of St. Margarethen. We made the stones for this place, worked our lifeblood into it, and made it with passion for this place.

(Sketch from 1971: 'Sculpture Trail' on the slope of the art and nature area of ​​St. Margarethen)

Barbara Haim (sculptor)

Widow of Hiromi Akiyama, sculptor and professor of sculpture at the Kunsthochschule Karlsruhe

The current chairman of SEB in St. Margarethen, Sebastian Prantl, takes care of the artistic legacy and a corresponding art education on site. He has my full confidence (and authority over copyright) regarding the Sculpture Landscape and its direction - as decided in the internal agreement. This applies specifically to the sculptures of my husband, Hiromi Akiyama, in the years 1967 and 1969 on the slope of the hill of St. Margarethen, which he created during the symposium. Hiromi Akiyama leaves these two sculptures in the ownership of the association SEB.

For my late husband, Hiromi Akiyama, St. Margarethen was the starting point of his international sculptor career. The working and living community in the sculptor's house of St Margarethen created friendships and connections that carried the idea of ​​Karl Prantl into the world. Not to forget, the famous sentence of Karl Prantl "Art is help", that was the spirit of this time, artistic power and idealism were the impetus for the sculptures that were created at that time, not materialistic thinking. This important concern and historically significant testimony must be kept and preserved in the original sense and should not be commercially alienated or even abused.

Hana Seifertova  (Art History, PhD)

The brilliant idea of Karl Prantl – the founder of the international sculptors’ symposia – of creating a fitting artistic and natural environment at the hill site in St. Margarethen is unique. A location, with a powerful spiritual past, that engendered continuous development and annual gatherings of artists from every corner of the globe – Europe, America, Asia… The sculptors came as young people in search of essential artistic input that fundamentally influenced their future work. Many of them are now well-known artists. The idea of the sculptors’ symposium caught on around the world and, in keeping with Prantl’s example, led to a global, artistic network of symposia that has continued growing, internationally, to this day and lives on at many levels.

Sebastian Prantl, the current Chairperson in St. Margarethen takes care of artistic matters on the ground and enjoys both my wholehearted trust and complete authority regarding the sculptures of SEB – as has been repeatedly agreed internally by the association.

This applies specifically to the sculpture by my husband, the Czech sculptor Jiří Seifert, ‘Bell tower for Jan Palach’ from 1969.

The Sculptors’ House – minimalist and perfectly equipped to meet the elementary needs of the sculptor, organises the collective life of its occupants in an ideal way. A unique building, which fully corresponds with the symposium concept. This has given new, original substance to the selection of the Greek term ‘symposion’.

Does Austria possess any other globally important 20^th-century monument? Is Austria home to a unique position from the 1960s – 1980s, which is being pursued today on an international scale and with enormous commitment by enthusiasts and experts from the field of art? Regarding such questions, Sebastian Prantl also has my complete trust and authority to act. He takes great care of the building, which he fills with challenging cultural activities. We should do all that we can to preserve this original artistic and natural monument and to ensure that it is used in a fitting manner, before it is too late.

Jo Enzweiler (Visual Artist)

Founding Rector of the College of Fine Arts - Saar, Professor of Painting Initiator of the "Institute for Contemporary Art in Saarland"

In a long phase of my work as a consultant at the Galerie St. Johann in Saarbrücken and the direction of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Saarlouis, the connection to Karl Prantl was an essential part of my work.

In many visits to Burgenland, I was privileged to get to know and appreciate his studio with the sculpture field and the symposium in St. Margarethen.

The amazing fruitful effect that radiated from Karl Prantl into our region manifests itself in two follow-up projects, the "Street of Sculptures" by Leo Kornbrust and the "Steine an der Grenze" by Paul Schneider.

Here is an excerpt from my article in a recent publication on Europe: "For a long time - until his death - I am deeply in touch with the great Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl, who lived and worked in Burgenland on the border to Hungary. Prantl, at the invitation of Paul Schneider, worked on a stone on the border of my childhood (France/Germany) in the project 'Stones at the Border'. Both of us were always aware of our special responsibility - he in Burgenland (shaken by historical upheavals) and me in Saarland. Most of our correspondence ended with the formula 'Greetings from East to West' or 'Greetings from West to East'. The border regions have a special significance in the occidental cultural history, because here the idea of ​​a peaceful Europe was founded and lived daily. "

(Jo Enzweiler: „... die französischen Einflüsse nie ganz verloren ...“. In: Beziehungsstatus: kompliziert. Dreißig Blicke auf die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen. Hg. Markus Gestier und Katrin Mikulcic. Saarbrücken 2017)

It would be very regrettable if this great European and international life's achievement and artistic legacy were damaged by inadequate interventions.

Leo Kornbrust (Sculptor)

Initiator of the symposium "Street of Sculptures" at St. Wendel in the Saarland, in homage to the artist Otto Freundlich and his pacifist idea of ​​a "Road of Peace", as a European sculpture street from Paris to Moscow

I can still remember the time when I worked in St. Margarethen. The quarry, the sculptor's house, Karl Prantl, the colleagues and my two art works.

The sculptures in the quarry of St. Margarethen form an ensemble, grown during the many years that people worked there. They form a unity. We artists wanted the art works to remain there. We knew that they were in good hands - we gladly left them behind.

About ten years ago, I was there again, one of my sculptures had now moved and was now in Pöttsching. The change had probably become necessary because large movements (opera, architecture) had arisen in the quarry. The association 'Symposion of European Sculptors' has therefore repositioned some sculptures. Pöttsching is also a good location. The changes have been carefully and cautiously carried out, and the remaining sculptures in the quarry are still a unit. I have the fullest confidence in the work of this association and its chairman Sebastian Prantl. It should be so, that without his knowledge no sculptures should be placed, because he has an eye for the whole. And it is precisely this whole that at that time influenced the art of sculpture, the conception of art in general, worldwide. My wife, the poet Felicitas Frischmuth, wrote in 1972 in our St. Wendel brochure about our symposium in St. Wendel: "We have known the symposium work for years, and the impetus came from Karl Prantl, who, together with some colleagues, had begun under the most modest circumstances the first stone sculpture symposium in St. Margarethen/Austria.

From there, impulses in all directions took place. "The sculptors in St. Margarethen knew this intuitively, and my wife writes:" For many sculptors, there seemed to be a previously unspoken need to try something together, to foster new approaches in regard to their own artistic work." So it was clear to everyone that our sculptures should stay here. At the location where we created them.

Of course, nobody can predict the future and you may have to react to the unforeseen. For example, Karl Prantl has sought and found a new place for some sculptures. But be that as it may, it should always be about the sculptures, not reducing them to decorative adornments. It is incomprehensible to me that the sculpture by Pedro Tramullas was used as a decoration near the new parking lot. Like me, Pedro Tramullas was also in St. Margarethen in 1967 (and also Fritz Hartlauer, Hiromi Akiyama, Andre Rudavski and Toru Taki), we got along well. His view of things was the same. His sculpture is intended as part of the site of the symposium.

Once again my wife (as responsible for the word): "Here is no market to be satisfied, not even consumption of art at stake, the consideration goes rather to how the visual artist in the general addresses the social fabric and intervenes with his capabilities. That's why the House of Sculptors was so important, it was part of that philosophy.”

It is incomprehensible to me that the association now obviously has to move out.

In my view, there is an urgent need for a solution to be found for the quarry of St. Margarethen and its European symposium cultural heritage there, so that the destruction and the dismantling of the unique symposium has an end. The sculptures bear witness to the rise of sculpture in the 20th century, where they were created. Austria should be proud to be responsible for such a cultural heritage and realize that it takes experts for responsible administration! Nothing should be changed without the voice of the Association of European Sculptors!

Makoto Fujiwara (Sculptor)

地政学的にも京都は面白い、ウイーンに対してグラーツである。明治以降モダーンな東京に対して京都は伝統に固守したが
しかし京都美大の彫刻科は早々にあたらしい方向を模索した。形への追求と空間への取り組みである。教授、助教授ともに
自力と他力の坊さんである。そして京都市には美校への投資はわずかだった。モデル代もない彫刻科は身じか
にある素材をもとに指導が始まった。1950年から60年にかけて　”非具象’’に公立校として非難が殺到した。側で見守るる教授には自由な空気があった。　外では学制改革の嵐が吹きまくっていた頃である。

                                                              ( 画像添付 ）

その空気を浴びた五人の仲間たちがサンクトマルガレーテンの丘に集まった。青い空、広い丘の上には  ich, Ich が個々を誇示している。シンポジウム10年の成果だがアトリエから出た作品展だ。空間を可視化する僕達の課題は違う。見えない大きな何かが見えてくる。　　　

10日間を討論に当てた。頭痛、腹痛、下痢、、、、、大地を補助材としてichを超える作品はできないものか。宇宙という空間への旅立ち、我々は丘の現場を知り尽くした。
作業は２ヶ月半に及び古来からの道具　クランペンで古来の作業法、すべて手仕事であった。終わって数日後新関在日ウイーン大使から色紙が届いた。　                                          

                                                               （ 画像添付 ）

‘Comercial greed’ does not only destroy the exemplary Land Art Position of ‘The Japanese Line’ but also diminishes the highly valuable stone material for Vienna’s St. Stephen Cathedral and other landmark position for the ‘Vienna Ringstrasse’! The Repubilc of Austria must act!

Marcel Fišer(Art History, MA, PhD)

Director of the Gallery of Fine Art, Cheb – GAVU    

Please allow me to give to you my opinion on the potential threat to the hill site area of       St. Margarethen devoted to the International Sculptors’ Symposium. I am myself an art historian whose dissertation work focuses on the history of symposia in their first phase of development - from their inception in 1959 in St. Margarethen, up until the end of the 1960s. The symposia very quickly became a world-renown phenomenon – by the end of the 1960s, they spread to Europe, Asia and North America and to almost all the artistic disciplines and became important accompanying events for Olympic Games (Grenoble ’68, Mexico city ’68) and World Fairs (Osaka ’70).

In a nut shell, the idea of a symposium is one of the most important items which Austria brought to enrich world culture. The concept quickly spread to Czechoslovakia through sculptors who participated in the previous symposium in St. Margarethen. There, it was quite literally the symbol of political and cultural freedom in the years preceding 1968 – it was no accident that they were all forbidden in the years immediately following Soviet occupation, and revisited only after the revolution of 1989. With the phenomenon spreading throughout the world, St. Margarethen became legendary, a pilgrimage site for modern sculpture. It is with great trepidation that I see it being treated without the respect it deserves. The relevant authorities and the cultural public of Austria should understand just how much cultural value they are losing.

Michael Pilz (Filmmaker)

President of the Künstlerhaus, Vienna - Society of Fine Artists of Austria

the sculptor karl prantl and the ruster berg

thoughts on the recent events on and around the so-called "ruster berg" near st. margarethen, burgenland, better known as the "roman quarry".

it was around 1962, when I first met this "mountain", the quarry and the then still small number of stone sculptures by renowned international sculptors, especially karl prantl, who had founded the International Sculpture Symposium a few years earlier. I was attracted and caught up by the unique atmosphere that this mountain exudes, by being there, sharing it with all those who meet it openly, curiously, amazed - at eye level.

the mood of the ruster berg clearly distinguishes it from its surroundings, the gentle slopes in the east, sloping down to the neusiedlersee and the hills in the west, adjacent to the wiener foothills. it has the shape of a gently rising ground between rust am see and st. margarethen, a gentle alluvial pannonian sea millions of years ago. its modest appearance contributed substantially to the largely undisturbed preservation of this special character through very long periods.

until the soft, yellow and ocher-colored stone that underlies it became a welcome building material for the vienna stefansdom and many sacred and secular buildings in its near and distant surroundings.

still today, 57 years after my first encounters, this "mountain" captivates me and I am always tempted by its charms: the unparalleled union of its natural, varied gifts, the only fauna and flora to be encountered here in astonishing richness and uniqueness flora, the mild pannonian climate, to which the beguiling clouds of fragrant flowers and herbs are due, the grandiose play of light of the far firmament with unforgettable weather, thunderstorm and cloud moods.

every reunion with the ocher-colored earths, sands, with the searing heat, the icy storms, with the qualities provided by this lusciously proliferating nature year in, year out - for thousands of years, not the ideal conditions for lustful interaction, for the awakening of creative gifts. my own inclinations, fondness, and longings, as if coming home, was like the instillation of a deeply familiar being, an intimate love, a kind of "divine" blessing. full of secrets and unspeakable emotions.

i cannot say what it was in detail that made me look addicted to it. the wildly spreading grasses, the thorny bushes, in the autumn the blackberry shrubs heavily crushed by fruits, the seemingly endless horizons, the blazing sunsets, the countless thunderstorms raining down on my skin, that go with bare feet in the damp grass, on tawny earth, the gentle stroking of the stone with my "waking" hands, the feeling of weightlessness, of being unbound, of heaven and earth, of the times, of the past, of the future, but clearly in the "here and now" - all that and more much more made me drunk and full in my heart, my soul, and each time it was very difficult for me to break away, to say goodbye, even to return only a few days later or a little later, and to give myself over completely to my drunkenness.

all this seduced me in the summer of 1967 to an "open" film work during the three-week sculpture symposium in a small circle of wonderful people from near and far. this was the sculptor's house, built by johannes gsteu, in its incomparable simplicity and "warmth", the organizational and emotional center, our everyday meetings, conversations, eating together and relaxing. I was interested in questions about possible similarities between sculpture and filming, I was on my own deeper secrets on the track.

in this sense, the mountain was always a welcome occasion for me to meet.

i know some places on this blue planet that touch me in a similar way. every time i feel it as a great grace that happens to me. i am very thankful for that. so i also thank the ruster berg experiences, experiences, inner pictures - and sounds - that lead me into the silence that awaken my senses, that make me open to what we can call the secrets of life. and for which also the words are missing.

the possibilities of being able to encounter it in many parts of intact "nature" as a kind of mirror of ourselves, despite massive industrial collapses during the past decades, are among those undeniable rights of a society that is important to nature as well as art, because without this human being being unthinkable, doable, not viable.

may all those who "care" for the nearer future of the ruster berg, be clearly aware of what it is here to recognize, to name and to decide and that it is necessary to avoid any violent incision in the grown structure , an overall design that has produced a large number of noteworthy artists from all over the world and has contributed for more than half a century, not only materially, in sculpted form, but also emotionally and spiritually, through devotional devotion to those natural laws and ultimately unquestionable quality of life, which we all feel within us, as long as we strive for insights and tasks do not hesitate to bring light into our own dark.

Paul Schneider  (Sculptor)

Chairperson of SEB, St. Margarethen from 1989 – 1993; Initiator of the ‘Symposion on the border Germany & France’ - Saarland

From the very founding of the Symposium in 1959 the invited sculptors followed certain rules and practices. If one was invited to the Symposium, whether as a result of a recommendation or on one’s own initiative (it was always highly unconventional), one undertook at the very start to leave the resulting sculpture in the place in which it was created. It now belonged to the Symposium organisation. In most cases the site of the location was determined by the artists, as was the material and the idea. These unwritten rules were respected by every participant. We always saw ourselves as a community and took many decisions together. Once created, a sculpture is inviolable and may not be modified by outside organisations. That constitutes breach of copyright. Every work by a sculptor has an aura and is both a monument and a contemporary witness.

Given that innumerable sculptors’ symposia have emerged across the globe one can speak of a major artistic global movement. Many of the sculptors who belonged to this movement pursued this work with missionary zeal.

If one drives from Eisenstadt to St. Margarethen one can already see the hill site of Margarethen with its many “bright spots,” from far away. These are all stone sculptures from the quarry of St. Margarethen (calcareous sandstone). They were created over many years under the guidance of Karl Prantl. It is thanks to him that the hillside is not only famous but also very beautiful. It would be an outrage and a disgrace for Austria if this situation were to change as a result of material and touristic speculation!

Sigrid Baumann-Senn (Author)

Widow of Herbert Baumann, sculptor and professor of sculpture at the Kunsthochschule of Stuttgart

The idea of ​​Karl Prantl as the founder of the International Sculptor Symposia - to create an appropriate art and nature space on the hill of St. Margarethen is unique. A sculptural engagement for the rehabilitation of intellectual past in Europe (Symposium of European Sculptors - SEB) led to the continuous development and annual meeting of artists from all over the world - Europe, America, Asia ... The sculptors came as young people in order to find artistic impulses and their further artistic pathway. Today it is a seminal oeuvre of famous protagonists, which started here. The idea of ​​the sculptor symposia met with global approval. According to Prantl's example, a complex, artistic network of symposia has formed that continues to grow worldwide today.

The current chairman of SEB in St. Margarethen, Sebastian Prantl, takes care of the artistic legacy and a corresponding art education on site. He has my full confidence (and authority) in the sculpture landscape and its direction - as decided in the internal association agreements. This applies in particular to the sculpture of my husband, HERBERT BAUMANN. In 1964, he created during the symposium his sculpture on the hill of St. Margarethen.

Austria's most important sculptural monument from the 20th century bears the international handwriting of exemplary protagonists and, as a unique position from this epoch of the 20th century, should be pursued internationally today, with great interest for experts and art lovers. In times of general disruption and isolation, art-based research and communication is an essential vehicle for re-conceptualizing life content. Also in these agendas Sebastian Prantl has full confidence on my behalf. He takes care of the good condition of the house, which he provides with sophisticated cultural activities. Everything should be done to preserve this original art and nature space and its appropriate use, especially in view of the general increasing tourist exploitation of meaningful places!

Simone Wille  (Art History, MA, PhD)

Project leader: Patterns of Trans-regional Trails. The materiality of art works and their place in the modern era. Bombay, Paris, Prague, Lahore, ca. 1920s to early 1950s. Funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF)

The core idea for launching the European Sculptor Symposium in St. Margarethen were the desire to establish connections, to work and reach across frontiers and to establish aesthetic and formal positions within the changing space of the postwar era. 

Between 1959 and 1975/76 international sculptors gathered here almost every year for several weeks with a like-minded spirit to create work under circumstances that are free from the constraints of the studio space and national confinement. While St. Margarethen served as a precursor for global initiatives of the same kind it also nurtured and articulated a new artistic subjectivity in an attempt to propose a unique, off-center along with a transnational mode of artistic operation.

In the summer semester 2018 I was able to work with a group of master students from the faculty of art history, University of Innsbruck, on a selected number of sculptures in both St. Margarthen and Pöttsching/Mitterberg. With the help of the Prantl Family we were able to gather information and unravel some historic treasures. The European Sculptor Symposium is an unjustly neglected project that needs to be discussed from various angles not least for its transnational artistic connections and its desire for active involvement with the world. To preserve the entire complex in its natural setting is of significance, not only for the study of postwar history of Austria but more so it will be of significance for the study of transnational space connections and geographies in motion.

 Werner Pokorny  (Sculptor)

Professor of Art at the State Academy of Art and Design, Stuttgart

Chairman of the Künstlerbund Baden-Württemberg

SEB in Sankt Margarethen, a documentation for sculpture with reach far beyond Austria: Karl Prantl was not just one of the most important sculptors of his time, but also developed a very important form of artistic exchange and collaboration with his symposion concepts and their national and international realization.

Through his many close national and international contacts, Karl Prantl furthermore realized the meeting, exchange and collaboration of important artistic positions in Europe, America and Asia and is certainly one of the most important persons responsible for the new directions and strengthening of sculpture after 1945.

The location of the "Symposion Europäischer Bildhauer SEB in St. Margarethen" is the international center-point of this movement which was initiated by Karl Prantl and whose preservation is of utmost importance.

Zuzana Husárová(Researcher and author in literary studies, PhD)

Digital Literaure and Literary Performance Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

The Sculptors’ House in Sankt Margarethen has been for over 50 years a place and a symbol of artistic practice that encourages not only artistic genius but also supports any kind of collaboration. Symposia held at this genius loci spread to the world and delivered a message for a necessity of such a location, where artists can work with nature and enrich the land we live in. This is a treasure not only for Austria but for the whole European community.

Sebastian Prantl followed his father´s footsteps, but enhanced the potential of this place to include performative, literary, musical and visual arts, so that it truly became a house of collaborative arts and an essential art think tank. I spent there a week with my students from the Institut für Sprachkunst, Universtität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, in an artistic, performative and literary cohabitation and collaboration with a legacy of the Sculptors’ House and a heritage of international statues.

An attack on the area as it stands now is not only an attack on the building and its artistic milieu itself, it is an attack on the whole European artistic community. The legacy of the Prantls’ achievements should, in a progress-loving, art-supporting, humanity-centred society, prevail in the hands of the Prantl family.