2004 marks the Salzburg Foundation's third year of the Art Project Salzburg. This time the project will feature the Belgrade-born artist Marina Abramovic: her Spirit of Mozart sculpture was unveiled in front of the AVA House on Hanuschplatz on August 1.
The project is scheduled to run for ten years; each year a sculpture is to be donated to the city of Salzburg and set up in a public area. Anselm Kiefer's sculpture was set up in the Furtwängler Park and Mario Merz's up on the Mönchsberg. This year's sculpture was contributed by Marina Abramovic. Actually the performance artist does not like sculptures but made an exception for Salzburg. Her conspicuous sculpture on Hanuschplatz consists of a nine-meter stele ending in a chair. Eight chairs are set up on the lawn in front of the sculpture on which passers-by are invited to take a seat. The ninth and highest seat on the stele is unreachable and therefore free – for Mozart, whose spirit dominates the city day after day. The public is called upon to communicate with the work of art, representing a "stage“ as well as a symbol for the transitory nature of things. The site for the sculpture was deliberately chosen in the midst of the hectic flow of traffic since every place is also a transit area – even Mozart left Salzburg to travel to other countries. But Abramovic has captured his spirit again.
