"Dusty Turntable", Campus Attisholz, July 2017 , © Mike Wolff
The Kettenreaktion project in Attizholz (CH) is one year old and continuing its varied and ever changing transformation. Starting back in the summer of 2016, selected artists were granted a space to create many different forms of art, by people from all walks of life. While many remnants of this original project are still dotted around the factory, many other artists, have come and gone over this past year adding to and transforming the environment provided.
This “laboratory” of ideas, experiments and creation, offers a very unique playground for artists. This is due to the fluid atmosphere, with art coming and going in a way that can hardly be contained, giving energy back to a once old and abandoned factory that had not seen a hint of life for the past 15 years.
Mural by Cyot. Campus Attisholz, March 2017 , © Mike Wolff
An interview with two members of BTS (Beneath the Surface), Werne Feller and Aron Jaggi, provided a deeper insight into what the project is all about. They talked about how this period should be about recording and documenting the changes occurring and the idea of “sampling and resampling”. They talked about how the project brings the old and new together constantly making new compositions and art. This area and the ideas behind it supply artists with a ‘multifunctional environment that serves as both playground and platform’ which can be seen prominently throughout the project.
Currently work is going into renovations which have currently produced the ‘Kantine’ and the neighbouring ‘Salon’, which will provide not only a social area but also an area in which official artwork with have dedicated areas. This allows for the freedom of the area to be maintained while also providing a focus which members and artists can get behind.
All in all the projects provides a beautiful free and fluid landscape in which the old crashes with the new, creating a melting pot of not only art but artists too. Additionally, due to the ever-changing art and landscape there is never a moment this project doesn’t have something new and unique to provide to an onlooker.
C.Charnley