An 11-metre polished stainless steel wave sculpture set against the medieval city wall on Rudolfskai. Walk of Modern Art piece number ten, by Austrian sculptor Manfred Wakolbinger, installed 2011. Visitors can walk through it.
The Story
Manfred Wakolbinger describes Connection as a portal for the city's river. The form is a wave of polished stainless steel, 11 metres long, set directly against the old medieval city wall on Rudolfskai. The mirror finish reflects the Salzach on one side and the carved limestone of the fortification wall on the other. You can walk through it: the sculpture has an entrance at one end and an exit at the other, and the interior is a curved, reflective passage that compresses the two materials it sits between.
The Rudolfskai location is the reason most visitors miss it. There are no plazas or courtyards here, just the riverside embankment walk that connects the bridges. The old city wall runs along this stretch in one of its most intact sections, and the tourism layer that coats most of the right bank stops paying attention once it gets past the Staatsbrucke. Connection sits further along, at the margin where the pedestrian traffic thins out.
This is the tenth and final piece in the original Walk of Modern Art series. Wakolbinger was commissioned by the Salzburg Foundation as part of the Salzburg Art Project, which brought a new international or Austrian artist to the city each year from 2002 onwards. The ten pieces are now permanent, distributed across the city, and together form a loose sculptural itinerary through the Altstadt and the right bank.
The visual argument the piece makes is direct: a 13th-century stone wall and a 21st-century mirror-finish steel form, held in sustained proximity, each transforming the way the other reads.
Visiting
Rudolfskai, right bank of the Salzach, set against the medieval city wall. Near the Mozartsteg footbridge. Free, always accessible. Walk through the sculpture to experience the reflective interior passage. The Walk of Modern Art full route connects this piece to Caldera, Awilda, and others across the city.
