Artist in Residence
Reisenberg Chapter II
We are proud to present the second chapter of Artist in Residence, an ongoing art project that invites contemporary artists to intervene with the natural landscape of Reisenberg — subtly, radically, and always with a profound connection to time, place, and ecology.This September, the Austrian artist Peter Jellitsch brings a striking new perspective with his art piece:
“Portal”A palm tree. In the middle of Austria.
Rooted among spruces and larches.
A surreal installation. Of what it was. Of what it will be again.
An Exclamation Mark
in the Landscape:
The Palm that Questions
"Nature"
This sculpture by Peter Jellitsch breaks radically with its surroundings. While native trees grow in organic rhythms - supported by an idea of nature that is as culturally shaped as it is historically shifted - this palm tree follows a strict code: black, white, black, white. The trunk: like a linear algorithm. Thecrown: like an explosion of drawn lines. What appears to be an error - a palm tree in the middle of the forest - is a precisely composed interference signal.
Between Fiction
and Forest
An intervention that raises questions:
What is nature? What is artificiality? What is our projection of “naturalness”? The black and white checkerboard pattern on the palm leaves refers to more than pure aesthetics; it is a symbol of duality – of nature and artificiality, of here and there, of reality and fiction.
Through the Looking-Glass of Nature: A Tree That Shouldn’t Be
As in Lewis Carroll's „Through the Looking-Glass“, where a chessboard becomes a threshold into another world, this palm tree also opens a mental portal: it marks a transition, an in-between. A grid that does not order, but destabilizes. The clear coding tips over into the surreal - what just seemed familiar begins to flicker. This portal is not a door, but a perception: a moment of irritation that calls everything into question. The sculpture stands in absolute solitude and yet communicates. Perhaps not in words, but in forms, in contrasts, in meanings.
Photo: Leonhard Hilzensauer
Jellitsch succeeds in creating a sculptural drawing on a scale of 1:1 - a line that does not run on paper, but in the landscape. He combines digital aesthetics with a sculptural gesture, ironic displacement with a serious assertion of space.
Artist in Residence Reisenberg
About the Artist
He has received numerous honors – among them the Strabag Artaward (2014), Theodor Körner Prize (2014), and Austria’s Outstanding Artist Award (2010) – and has completed international residencies in Los Angeles, Paris and New York. He also teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
(c) Lara Hensel
Initial drawings
2018 – 2025.
A Time Portal
Reisenberg wasn’t always forest. „Millions of years ago, this land was underwater.
The Paratethys Sea covered vast areas of Central Europe — a warm, shallow sea home to marine life, coral, and yes, also palms.” – University of Vienna – Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
Jellitsch’s palm stands as a living time capsule, a botanical ghost of this prehistoric shore.
IT INVITES THE VIEWER TO QUESTION WHAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED AS “NATURAL”, inviting existential questions about nature.
Bring your own ones.
Exhibition Info
Opening:
Dinner Event:
Opening Hours:
Saturday 20th, September from 2pm till 6pm
(Free Entrance - The Artist is present)
Shuttle Service:
Available from 2pm every 30min
Meeting point:
Iris Porsche Landhotel
Das Salvator 9361, St. Salvator.
Parking Lot Seminarwelt
(Please do not drive up to Reisenberg with your private car because of the road and parking situation)
Friday 19th, September from 6pm
(The Artist is present)
Availaiblity:
Dinner for 20 Guests
€350 per Person
Reservation:
With advanced pre-booking via:
info@i-am-escape.com
Shuttle Service:
Available at 5:30pm
Meeting point:
Iris Porsche Landhotel
Das Salvator 9361, St. Salvator.
Parking Lot Seminarwelt
(Please do not drive up to Reisenberg with your private car because of the road and parking situation)
September, October 2025
On Sunday from 4pm to 7pm
Shuttle Service:
Available at 4pm
Meeting point:
Iris Porsche Landhotel
Das Salvator 9361, St. Salvator.
Parking Lot Seminarwelt
(Please do not drive up to Reisenberg with your private car because of the road and parking situation)
2024 Artist
was born in Magdeburg in 1980. He studied Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts and was a master student at the "Institut für Raumexperimente". In his artistic practice, Knecht changes patterns of perception and behaviour, reflects on concepts of art and power structures and questions social conditions and norms through counter-images.In 2012, he worked at Matthew Barney‘s studio in New York. His works have been exhibited in national and international institutions and exhibitions, including the MSU Museum for Contemporary Art (Zagreb), the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, the Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), the Imperial War Museum (London), the Academy of Arts (Berlin), and the Kunsthalle Mannheim.
