Mythical creatures have always fascinated people, awakening their imagination and casting a spell over them. The walls inside Schloss Eggenberg are also home to a rich and legendary animal world, which inspired artist Katja Paternoster to create her very own fantastic figures. The spatial installation “Wonder Animals” goes back in time and illuminates mythical animals and the legends associated with them. Sculpted by hand and staged with light, a flying snake, a hydra, a basilisk and a weasel, a griffin and a two-headed eagle came to life in the palace park. Hovering in the treetops and hidden in the grove of trees, Katja Paternosters created wonder animals and the illusion of a mythological world in which viewers could also participate when they entered the remote corners of Eggenberg Palace Park. The fragile structure of the wire created the mystical, ghostly, mysterious heroes of legends from the past, which became real in the light.

KLANGLICHT 2021

Katja Paternoster is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana. As a light artist, she works in the field of spatial light installations. Her works reflect a sensitivity to the local identity of the space in which the installation is placed. The medium she uses to express herself is light in combination with simple materials. In the process of creation, the materials lose their original function and with the help of light, the sculptures become visible. Her works have already been presented at many light festivals throughout Europe. She passes on her knowledge and passion for light as a mentor in various lighting workshops. Paternoster’s first installation, a series of wire sculptures, was called “Night Visitors”, in which the light shows the presence of wild animals in the city at night. Her later installation was called “Domestic & Wild”, in which the light symbolically outlines the coexistence of different animal species in a common territory. In Paternoster’s installation “Below surface”, the light revealed the depth of the sea and its rarely seen inhabitants.

Artist: Katja Paternoster
Music: Igor Matković
Technical implementation: grafx live-marketing GmbH, slv-austria