2008velolove

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VELOLOVE, 2008
Permanent work / commissioned by the Principality of Liechtenstein for the New School Building Mühleholz II, Vaduz.

VELOLOVE is an octagonal, double-sided ‘wind’ vane mounted on a steel pole. The vane moves along a horizontal axis and aligns itself according to the direction the wind blows it. The two-sided aluminium panel displays the word VELO and LOVE, respectively. The panel and the mast are in orange, while both words are printed in green.

Meeting place for rumours
VELO is a sign that publicly announces the site of a bicycle shelter. The shelter, situated on the periphery of the school premises — at the passageway between Mühleholz I and Mühleholz II — is somewhat on the sidelines and more or less removed from the direct control of the school. Here the students pass their time, wait for friends outside of school hours, accost each other, look for a favourable opportunity to address someone, any of which situation can even develop into a love story. In addition, the shelter’s environs is often a popular hub for exchanging wild rumours. Here stories, for instance, about (dis)liked fellow students and teachers are bandied about. LOVE stands for all these aspects.

Word dismemberment and puns
To speak words backwards, to mirror, dismantle or reassemble them is an essential component of appropriating language. Not only by adolescents. The dismemberment of language, as well as associative puns, is part of the standard repertoire. LOVE is surely the most semantically-weighted word conversion that can arise from a recombination of the letters of the given word VELO. In-between the two lies a sequence of linguistic figures such as, e.g., EVOL, ELOV, OLEV, LEVO or VOLE, which, like VELO und LOVE, can be assigned to German, English, French and freely invented languages. Whereby the lighthearted and nonsensical play on words makes up just as important an aspect. In the search for a personal position between the user-oriented (usefulness-oriented), functional and sometimes disorienting emotional levels, a whole assortment of multi- or non-meaningful mental spaces is opened up.

In motion
VELO and LOVE as a word pair can be linked to the most diverse and personally defined images of physical locomotion, mental mobility, experienced motion and the movements occasioned by strong winds or gentle breezes.

Architecture of Mühleholz II
Prof. Arch. DI Günther Domenig, Graz, in collaboration with Arch. DI Peter Kaschnig, Halm.Kaschnig.Wührer Architects, Graz.
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