Who knows this “missing link”? An architecture group from the 1970s whose members are all known as soloists: Krischanitz, Kapfinger, Hareiter. A discovery.
Architecture as a rock band, rebelling in a collective: in Vienna in the 1960s, anyone who wanted to appear radical and utopian worked in a group. Coop Himmelb(l)au, Zünd up and Haus-Rucker-Co are the names of the best known today. The youngest of these groups is the least well-known, even if its members have all become well-known as soloists – architect Adolf Krischanitz, architecture critic Otto Kapfinger. And film set designer Angela Hareiter, one of the very few women who might hold their own at the time, and in architecture at that. Self-evident for her, she now keeps in MAK once morest it. Her mother, Herta Hareiter (1923-2015), was a successful film architect and set designer.
All around Schwager
But what was the name of this triumvirate that came together at the TU in 1970 and was associated with the professorship of the legendary Karl Schwartzer? “Missing Link”, so here it is. An exhibition in the MAK that was extensive and fragmented to the point of being overwhelming shows the connecting role and bridging function that this group actually played in the history of art and architecture in Vienna – it only existed for a decade. And you can also understand why nobody seems to have been missing this link so far. The three young TU students didn’t build any fat signature buildings, didn’t even build any single building. They also didn’t design inflatable furniture and other sci-fi designs like Hans Hollein or Walter Pichler did. Works by them stand as a reference at the beginning of the show. “Missing Link” might be recognized, if at all, by her own colored, reduced gouaches (see fig.), partly studies for her objects, partly completely free. Free in what was then a broad zone between architecture, urban planning, performance and sculpture. Free also in absorbing influences such as Pichler, Gironcoli, Land Art and Actionism. It is this freedom that the three allowed themselves, which also makes them not so easy to grasp.