edith dekyndt

bully missy queeny tipsy benji teddy

For one month during the Grafenegg music festival in the summer of 2018, a young man dressed in a traditional Austrian costume took a walk through the park every evening before the concerts began. It was not clear where the young man with the leather pants came from—perhaps from another era? His outfit was inspired by traditional rural costumes, which are currently experiencing a romantic revival among those who identify with a certain geographical area and nation. The young man was followed by three drones flying overhead that filmed his walks past the concert hall and the open air stage. The films could be seen on a screen in the lobby of the concert hall. Edith Dekyndt’s staged performance acted as a reminder of the six dogs (Bully, Missy, Queeny, Tipsy, Benji, and Teddy) that used to belong to the castle owners. Over the years, the dogs were buried in a small canine cemetery in the park with a sculpture of a spaniel at its center. The artist calls this small cluster of graves the “necropolis of a silent pack.” Dekyndt brought the dogs, who used to roam all corners of the park when they were alive, back to life, transporting their personalities into the twenty-first century in the form of small robots resembling comical animals being taken for a walk in the air.

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plan

* temporary project