Dana Kľučárová
The Wire Art Odyssey project, that was launched under the auspices of the Centre for Folk Art Production (ÚĽUV) and, in particular, thanks to a personal involvement of their director, began coming to fruition a year after it had first been mentioned in this magazine. Within cooperation between ÚĽUV and Eva Burtscher, a Slovak artist living and working in Austria, six craftsmen went to try and work in Austria, just like tinkers once used to. These included: Janette Imrová, Hana Krafčik, Blažena Kriváková, Dagmar Křížová, Štefan Smržík a Jozef Šabó. Mrs Eva Burtscher has been captivated by fences – however, not ordinary ones. We introduced her art work in more detail in Magazine RUD (Craft, Art, Design) 02/2015. To make the production of fence weaving more efficient, Eva Burtscher decided to launch her project, a follow up from a wire art tradition and bobbin lace in Slovakia. To produce wire panels for her “laced” fences, she cooperated with Slovak wire, and bobbin lace, artists, making use of their vast practical experience and manual dexterity. Within the pilot project, Slovak wire artists are going to cooperate with her further, to develop and produce a new design collection of object for the SECURO Zaunbau company. With the aim to learn more, to research possible forms of cooperation and determine what is feasible, on 5th April 2016, the first group of wire artists travelled to workshops and a studio in the Lower Austrian town of Dechantskirchen, to meet, and work with, Mrs Burtscher and her production team.