Christian Kosmas Mayer

∗1976, Germany
lives and works in Vienna, Austria

For the V Biennale Gherdeina Christian Kosmas Mayer will present following project:
In 2009 when the Palace of the Republic was demolished to rebuild the original baroque City Palace in its place, 300 year old pillars were excavated and later put up for auction, where artist Christian Mayer acquired some of them.
The pillars, functionless now and without the need to support, will carry a symbol for support. The grand staircase of the original castle hosted atlantes which were destroyed when the building was taken down. In classical European architecture, an Atlant is a support sculpted in the form of a figure. The in Greek mythology Atlas was the Titan forced to hold the sky on his shoulders for eternity. He is the personification of support and the name-giver to the pillars in form of figures. There are photographs and casts of those lost original sculptures from inside the Palace, which are now cut into the wood of the pillars in smaller and rougher form.