Public Space: PAYER-WEYPRECHT-ISLANDS

Art of Garden in Public Space.

Our second Public Space project:

PAYER-WEYPRECHT-ISLANDS were conceived and put up by kunstGarten, in 2006, in homage to Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht.

The first recognized exploration of the archipelago called Franz Josef Islands was undertaken in 1873 by Austro-Hungarian North Pole explorers Karl Weyprecht and Julius von Payer, who were trying to find a North East Passage. After the exploration of its southern islands, the name was bestowed in honor of Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria: Franz Josef Land.

Alfred Resch ´s idea was to raise the consciousness of passers-by, in memory of a a great achievement which (at the same time) was a lost cause, considering the chimerical nature of these islands as so much wasteland.