Light and sound-installation in the park of the Villa Schoeck and former Hotel Eden
Conception and Light-installation: Michaela Müller
Sound-installation: Jan Bielefeld, 909 Schneider
The Garden of Eden
The light and sound installation „Garden of Eden“ by the animation artist Michaela Müller and the sound duo Jan Bielefeld and 909 Schneider reflects the mystery of the 150-year-old, spacious garden grounds of the Villa Schoeck – or Ruhheim, as it was called by its builders, Alfred and Agathe Schoeck-Fassbind around 1880.
Inspired by the house, the Hotel Eden and the people associated with it, the park with its original planting, trees and sculptural details preserved to this day, become a stage for the spirits who walked here. Traces of the much-traveled painter and hunter Alfred Schoeck emerge, fragments from letters of his four sons Paul, Ralph, Walter and the youngest and most famous, Othmar, can be heard. At times, one imagines oneself at a banquet with the Schoecks, at other times memories of one’s youth are awakened. Sculptures shine as witnesses of time, fleeting sounds and shadows remind us that all things must pass.
The love of the arts played an important role in the Schoeck family. They invited their artist friends to the „Gütsch“ above Brunnen, here they played music until late into the night and – as the writer Meinrad Inglin reported – „drank, smoked, argued.“
In the multifaceted installation, the turmoil of the family members is also expressed. In a time of two World Wars, they were tasked of maintaining the standard of living financially and running the hotel, while they would have preferred to devote their lives entirely to the arts.