KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien and EBG Gemeinnützige Ein- und Mehrfamilienhaus Baugenossenschaft reg. Gen.m.b.H were looking for an artistic design for the spacious passageway from Maria-Lassnig-Strasse to the green, lively residential courtyard - open to Helmut-Zilk Park: an address-forming, identity-creating intervention that creates an appealing atmosphere for everyone and improves the perception of the passageway space. KÖR and EBG have cooperated to realize a permanent art project in the area of the passageway of the residential complex "Schöne Aussichten" and have held an invited artistic competition.

The six-member jury decided on October 18, 2021 for the design of the artist Moussa Kone.

Winning design: Moussa Kone - The Great Vibration

"The design of the publicly accessible passageway of the residential complex "Schöne Aussichten" in the Sonnwendviertel successfully combines the spatial situation with the historical stratifications of the place as with the common life in this new housing complex, in a new neighborhood of the city. The design by Moussa Kone thematizes the sewer running under the passage, whose history of origin goes back to the cholera epidemic that was still rampant in Vienna in the 19th century. In this way, the memory of it is linked to the future looking back on the current pandemic. At the same time, the work calls to mind the ever-present importance of urban infrastructures, which not infrequently remain hidden and yet so reliably enable everyday life to run smoothly. Moussa Kone's work, titled The Great Vibration, remains light and almost playful, while becoming an identity-forming element of the apartment building complex, providing an inviting orientation for residents, neighbors, as well as visitors and viewers, while pointing to an exciting and important history."
-- Jury Statement

The passageway through the residential complex "Schöne Aussichten" in the Sonnwendviertel hides its practical function underground. According to the dedication plan, this area may not be built on. The empty space thus marks the course of the modern Viennese canal system, which was created on the occasion of the cholera pandemic starting in 1831. At this place there is a parallelism between historical and current events. The artist Moussa Kone brings these facts to the surface and shows how hygienic requirements impact urban coexistence.
Starting in Asia, a deadly wave of cholera reached European cities in the 19th century. In response, borders were sealed off, quarantine stations as well as military hospitals were set up, and disease commissioners were appointed to monitor the situation. Unemployment, protests and social exclusion were among the consequences. Catastrophic hygienic conditions suggested that the cause of the disease was miasmas, evaporations from the soil. Thus, the "assanitation" of Vienna and the expansion of the canal were started. In 1873, the year of the last major cholera outbreak in Vienna, construction began on the large Favoritner Sammelkanal, which crosses the residential building underground and is still in operation today.
The title of the mural The Great Vibration refers to the movement of vibrios, as the class of cholera bacteria is called. On one wall, two figures operate on hygienic activities, disposing the contents of a bucket upward. Through a channel between concrete beams on the ceiling, an undulating pattern of protozoa flows toward the opposite wall. There it dissolves in an iridescent and airy manner before individual vibrios disappear into the existing ventilation grille as if down a drain. A road marking, based on the cross-section of the historic canal vault, actively directs the eye downward. A painted brick pattern is found on the architrave frieze facing the park. The artist documented the implied repairs by mortar and lime deposits during his research in the Favoritner Sammelkanal.
The artwork gives the place a visible identity. Moussa Kone calls to mind the public structures of the urban environment with which the private space is directly connected. The recourse to history serves to reassure us of present points of view and to create an outlook on the future of our coexistence.

Other competition entry:

Christoph Knecht - Untitled

The project aims to mediate synergistically between the residents, the young people from the WUK work.space on site and Christoph Knecht's artistic practice: Tile painting meets partly native flora and thus artistically refers to a heterogeneous residential community, which is reflected in the residential courtyard, on the project site and in a pre-formulated concept of socialization. It wants to be understood as a field of discourse and to stimulate a dialogical exchange.
The tile picture shows a conglomerate of naturalistic plant representations, which refer to Wilhelm Thomés and his botanical illustrations made in the 19th century during his travels through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The starting point for the pictorial research was the questioning of residents and young people in the WUK work.space about their favorite plants. Furthermore, the planting of the raised beds on site as well as the fauna in the immediate vicinity of the residential complex form additional sources regarding plant species, which are supplemented by a selection of native plants.
This collection of diverse plants is thus closely linked to the locality of the residents or the young people of the WUK work.space and forms the basis for the image of a hybrid plant being. This plant form, interpreted in a painterly all-over manner, unfolds its leaves and buds as a complex motif that spreads out over various levels between the foreground and background in a rank and rampant manner and extends over the entire pictorial space in a compositionally balanced manner, free of hierarchies. Roots sprout from the lower edge of the picture all the way to the uppermost corners. Plants playfully change genus and the free tendrils, proliferation, sprouting and meandering of forms create a lively interplay.