Domestic & Wild
Katja Paternoster
The sculptures by Slovenian architect Katja Paternoster explore the phenomenon of coexistence among a wide variety of living beings sharing the same habitat. The artist’s intention is to highlight the diversity of animals that live right among us, yet largely go unnoticed – including here in Vienna.
We do not live alone in the city.
According to the artist, cities are by no means exclusively human spaces, but complex ecosystems. From pets to wild animals, Paternoster’s sculptures are deliberately shaped from the everyday material of wire, staged with light, and in this form populate the entire Schwarzenberg Garden.
For Katja Paternoster, light is the element that has the greatest influence both on her work as an architect and on her life. It is only through the use of light that form becomes visible and that colours and surfaces can be perceived.
Spotlight
from Idea to Artwork
Your installation Domestic and Wild features animals that live right among us, yet often go unnoticed. How did the idea come about?
First of all, I am very happy to be part of the first edition of KLANGLICHT IM PARK. The historic Schwarzenberg Garden next to the Belvedere is a place where nature, culture and history come together in a very special way. That is precisely why it feels so fitting to present this installation here.
Domestic and Wild consists of a series of illuminated animal sculptures – some depicting domestic animals, others wild ones – distributed throughout the garden. I have always been fascinated by the animals that live alongside us in the city without us really noticing them. We tend to think of cities as purely human spaces. In reality, however, they are complex ecosystems.
Squirrels in parks, birds nesting on buildings, foxes or wild boars coming to the outskirts of cities in search of food – all of these animals adapt their behaviour and way of life in order to coexist with us in urban environments.
With Domestic and Wild, I want to make this hidden layer of urban life visible. To do so, I translate the animals into sculptures made of wire mesh – a simple, everyday material. It is only through light that they emerge from the darkness, much like the way we often encounter real wild animals only by chance.
In fact, there is even a fox living in the Schwarzenberg Garden again today.
Yes, and observations like that are exactly what interest me. The same applies to the squirrels or the peacocks, which are historically closely associated with Baroque gardens. Animals have always been part of these places – sometimes visible, sometimes hidden.
How would you like visitors to experience your installation?
The animal sculptures are spread throughout the entire park. Visitors discover them gradually as they walk through it. I hope each encounter feels surprising – almost as if they had suddenly come across a real animal.
Each sculpture is very deliberately given its own place. For every animal, I look for a location that supports its presence and creates a dialogue with the surroundings.
In general, I always try to highlight the identity of a place through my work. The sculptures themselves remain the same, but their surroundings are constantly changing. This creates ever-new relationships between the artwork and the landscape.
Do you have a favourite animal?
I like peacocks very much.
But really, every animal tells its own story. That is why I find it difficult to single one out.
The first animals emerged as so-called “night visitors”. During a night-time site visit in Ljubljana, a fox suddenly crossed my path. That encounter gave rise to the idea of those wild animals that enter cities at night in search of food.
At another exhibition site, there were peacocks and chickens in a park, so new figures developed from that. Later, in Graz, I encountered squirrels, which in turn found their way into the installation.
In this way, each animal is directly connected to a particular place. Together, they tell the story of our urban wildlife.
So your works are always highly site-specific?
Yes, exactly. Nothing happens by chance. Every animal has a reason for becoming part of an installation. Everything belongs to a larger narrative.
So the lion in the Schwarzenberg Garden is also part of this story?
Yes. I was immediately fascinated by the story of Prince Eugene’s lions. At the Belvedere, there are still taxidermied specimens of some of the exotic animals that were once kept there. The lion connects the history of the garden with the present and adds another layer to the installation.
Biography
Katja Paternoster, born in 1981, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana. She works as an independent architect on a range of her own projects and also collaborates with architectural practices. Her work spans architecture and furniture design, and she is also active in the field of lighting design.
She is particularly interested in addressing contemporary issues through light installations. Her work has been presented at various festivals, including Lighting Guerrilla in Ljubljana, Visualia in Pula, the Bella Skyway Festival in Toruń, and Lumina in Cascais. She has received several awards for her work.