Sculpture project on Makartplatz, Salzburg

To mark the seventh Salzburg Art Project, the English sculptor Anthony Cragg has installed an approximately 5 metre-high sculpture made of patinated bronze on the Makartplatz. The title “Caldera” is a geological term denoting a volcanic crater, which in English also carries poetic connotations. Here the artist is exploring space and matter, suffused with the energy and emotion unleashed by dramatic processes. And, not least, he is alluding to the bowl-like location of Salzburg itself.

“Caldera” is a veritable landscape of bronze, projections and recesses, forms which collide into each other like tectonic plates. Within these structures, the viewer can discern human outlines which suddenly appear, interact spatially and then vanish just as quickly, depending on location and perspective. Anthony Cragg conceives of this walkable sculpture as a ‘mental landscape’, which can be experienced even within the interior of the “cauldron”.