Margherita Spiluttini – Großglockner Hochalpenstraße 1, A, from the Series ‘Nach der Natur’ (After Nature.), 1991-2003, source

To be on this street would be great right now…I especially like this picture because the road is winding through the landscape really long before it’s disappearing in a tiny tunnel. There also is a lot of space for imagination because of the fog in the right part of the photography.

Margherita Spiluttini is one of the most famous Architecture photographers, but also dealt with human influence on landscape.

Over time these built structures become landscape themselves, especially when they are embedded in such a complex historical and political past as the ‘Hochalpenstraße’. Built between 1930 and 1934 (end of Democracy in Austria) it was one of the infrastructural prestige projects in Austria, a country radically shrunk and still searching for a new identity after WW1. People fully believed in the new possibilities of technology to control nature. Another major aim was to provide work to the masses of unemployed people after the economic crisis in 1929.

construction work

The first car crossing ‘Hohe Tauern’ in 1934

From the very beginning the 48km of the road were a touristic route (375.000 peple/year before WW2), there are numerous postcards showing the road, so at least in my mind the road is much more present than the actual mountain.

I could draw a postcard view of the road, but I’d have to look up how the peak of Großglockner actually looks like.

Beschreibung der Werkserie ‘Nach der Natur’

Nach der Natur handelt von der Ambivalenz zwischen der ergreifenden Schönheit des Gebirges und der drückenden Bedrohung, die von ihm ausgehen kann. Von dem, was entsteht, wenn die Menschen das Gigantische und Unwegsame der Berge überwinden, beherrschen und benutzen wollen und wie sich die „Oberfläche“ Berg dadurch verändert.

Publiziert in:
Margherita Spiluttini. Nach der Natur. Konstruktionen der Landschaft. Technisches Museum Wien, Fotohof edition Salzburg, 2002′

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