Jürgen Bauer

The city of Schwaz is undergoing significant changes. Right near the old city center, a large swath of land has been transformed into a construction site that will soon be filled by a new shopping center. The exhibition Shopping Welt looks more closely at the influences that have led to these changes in the shape of the city, with both international and regional positions highlighting the many different possible perspectives.

The Artist Jürgen Bauer developed an Installation for the Gallery and hit the public space around the Area of the new Shopping Center with an urban intervention. In the city center and the areas around Schwaz warning tapes where placed on frequented places and around the building-lot of the shopping center. On the tapes the slogan „Shopping Area“ was printed and the tapes should draw attention and confuse at the same time. Marking tapes normally are used to designate areas which are dangerous. Our surrounding is overloaded with commercial areas – and the printed tapes are intended to single out this fact. The decissions to build new shopping areas are most of the times made by politicians and lobbyists without involving the citizens. The Intervention was documented on Video, which became a part of the Gallery Installation. To complete the Installation Bauer placed an oversized map of Schwaz where he marked the zones of his Intervention with paint bombs – a method which is mostly used by protesters to express their anger.  

http://www.galeriederstadtschwaz.at