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Gottfried Höllwarth :
Grosser Wagon

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Pöggstall, 1991

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The now dismantled object 'Grosser Wagon' (Great Plough) made of granite-steel, iron-bronze and concrete with the dimensions 572cm x 98cm x 129cm, and weighing 1600kg. It is emblamatic of basic physical principles: mobility with the wheel, fission and destruction with the wedge, energy and force from shifted mass.

The object 'Grosser Wagen' (The Great Bear -'Wagen' also meaning 'wagon') is based on the elaboration of succinct physical principles. Movement by means of the wheel, division and destruction by means of the wedge, energy and force by means of moved mass. The wheel is a rolling body in the form of a disc that can turn around a focal point, with the outer rolling rim of the disc being connected to the central point of the hub by spokes. The wedge is a body that is pointed along one edge for dividing and splitting. Its action: a force that acts upon the base is resolved into two forces emanating from the sides. The mass is the amount of material of which a body is composed, as the characteristic of its smallest particle it causes mass attraction, in particular the force of gravity, but also the resistance of the body to changes of motion. The aggression that proceeds from an object does not arise from the object itself, but through its movement and use.
(Gottfried Höllwarth)