ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss concept artists Frank and Patrik Riklin are diving into the urban landscape to create their latest piece – an art project that will be buried beneath a new residential development north of the city of Zurich.
The twin brothers, whose earlier work included an open-air “zero-star-hotel”, want to show how art can influence the mentality of a place and the inhabitants of the Zwhatt neighbourhood scheme in Regensdorf.
The pair will visit nearby households asking them to donate regular objects like ironing boards and chairs which will be then cut up and combined with similar objects to signify creative co-existence.
The Riklins, 47, will make around 15 “twisted works of art” which will go on display before being buried in the foundations of the Zwhatt development.
Visitors will be able to see images of the pieces through an augmented reality museum which is due to be built at the site in 2024.
“It may seem strange to create works of art and then bury them in concrete underground, but we think it’s exciting when a city is built on top of an art museum,” said Frank Riklin.
The project is called Foundation Riklin – a play on words as the pieces will appear in the foundations of the new development of 600 apartments, along with commercial space, as well as support the foundation of the community.
“As a society we need to find new and better ways of bringing people together no matter what our differences are,” said Patrik Riklin.
“We had this idea long before the coronavirus pandemic, but this difficult situation with everyone living separately has made it even more relevant.”
Reporting by Arnd Wiegmann and John Revill; ediitng by Emelia Sithole-Matarise