The Danube separates the city of Linz (A) into a northern and a southern part. The two districts are connected by four (currently three) bridges, which thus become the keyholes of the inner city traffic as well as for transit traffic:
The 250-meter-long Niebelungsbrücke has existed in this form since 1940 and mainly serves the inner-city car and tram traffic.
The Old Railway Bridge, is a riveted iron construction that was completed in 1900. It served the inner-city car and bicycle traffic, but was demolished in 2016 to be replaced by a successor, better suited for road traffic.
The Vöeste bridge, which was completed in 1972 is Austria's first cable-stayed bridge. The 410-meter-long construction is part of the A7 motorway, but offers bicycle paths in both directions as well.
The two-lane Steyregger bridge is the only one of the Linz bridges from east to west. It connects the eastern suburbs with the city of Linz, where it flows directly into the southeast industrial area.
Each of these bridges has its own character, defined by its architectural structure, its importance for traffic, its history and its surroundings.
bridge_portraits is the attempt to audiovisually capture the particular characters of these bridges. Contact microphones were used to record the structure-borne and auto-vibrational sounds of the bridges, while the events on the bridge were synchronously filmed. The 9 audio video recordings per bridge were digitally compressed to four composite videos.
bridge_portraits is a 4-channel video installation with 8-channel sound
bridge_portraits was created during a residency at Salzamt in Linz (A) in 2012.
