Being & Sense, Castle & Man

The 2001 provincial exhibition, which took place at two venues, invited visitors to the “mystical Waldviertel”. “Being & Sense” was shown in Ottenstein Castle (municipality of Rastenfeld) and ‘Castle & Man’ in Waldreichs Castle (municipality of Pölla), five kilometers away. A team led by historian Falko Daim and architect Carl Auböck worked on the exhibition for four years.

Daim described the provincial exhibition as a “showcase for the humanities faculty”. In Ottenstein, a castle complex from the twelfth century, the focus was on archaeological treasures and works of art. The focus was always on human existence: man as a being reflecting on himself in the mirror of history - from the Palaeolithic Age to the early Middle Ages.

“Being & Meaning” addressed the central questions of human existence: the questions of who, why and where. What is man actually? Their ability to understand and make judgments, their need to think about themselves and to assign themselves a place in the world distinguish them from other creatures, plants and animals, explained exhibition director Falko Daim.

“Of course, this perspective on people is only one of many possible ones, but it is a very important one, especially as it is not particularly fashionable at the moment. Our exhibition 'Being and Meaning' uses case studies to show how people used to arrange themselves in their world. Our focus is not on 'practical', in the modern sense 'rational' solutions, but on spirit and reason, imagination and emotional intelligence, with which the incomprehensible and the (purely technical) unmanageable can very well be brought under control,” Daim wrote about the exhibition.

In the “Burg & Mensch” show in Waldreichs Castle, the intention was also to look a little “behind the façade”. The image of the castle through the ages was the central theme of this part of the state exhibition. With the social and technical changes from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, the aristocratic lifestyle also changed, which was also reflected in the manorial gardens, for example.

From the High Middle Ages onwards, the castle not only had practical functions such as defense and administration, but also stood for positive qualities such as protection, order and stability, combined with the idea of secrets and adventures.

The show offered an overview of these “castle images” over the centuries: “A kaleidoscope of contemporary representations, written sources, archaeological finds, architecture, films, interviews, animations and games, which makes one thing very clear: reality is created in the mind,” said Falko Daim.

Ottenstein Castle
Waldreichs Castle