Joachim Eckl

Joachim Eckl grew up on the river Große Mühl. His ancestors were all millers; his great-grandfather erected in 1902 the first hydroelectric power plant on the Große Mühl river, which still stands and operates to this day. Joachim Eckl's views on the art and culture are therefore strongly influenced by the close connection of the humanity with the mysticism of the water. He finalized his psychology studies in New York and started to produce and create projects under his own name, but also under the moniker "heim.art". Although his main focus are the rivers in Upper Austria, where he resides, he conducted art installations related to the rivers Nile, Rhone, Jordan and others as well. He currently resides and operates offices in Neufelden and Linz, Austria. His latest project at heim.art includes hosting the Wandelweiser Composers Meet Composers Mentoring Project including fellow Wandelweiser composers/artists Antoine Beuger, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Marianne Schuppe, and Jürg Frey.[3]

Joachim Eckl, water drawing.

Joachim Eckl's first major production was a collaboration with Vito Acconci for the Werkstatt Kollerschlag, the installation Multi-Bed 2 in 1991.[4] Further collaborations with other artists followed, like the exhibition "The Only One[5]" with Georg Lindorfer, then exhibitions and collaborations with Tony Cragg, Jeff Koons and Christo and Jeanne-Claude followed. In 1997, together with the German artist Klaus Rinke, Joachim Eckl started a series of collaborations, with the most prominent opus being the design of the Pro Kaufland Shopping Mall in Linz.[6]

In the 21. Century Eckl returned to his artistic roots and developed the water drawing performance – art installation, but also an intellectual and spiritual experience – named "Persönliche Schöpfung",[7] a play on words in German, meaning personal creation and personal drawing at the same time. He organized 348 people to perform the water drawing and nightly sleepovers in the river bed of the Große Mühl, in order to raise awareness to the horrible state the river was in at the time in 2003.[8] The federal government reacted and a new form of environmental protest was born. Eckl developed out of this success the "River to River" project, which led him to Cairo, Egypt and the 11th International Cairo Biennial.[9] In Egypt he built an ice pyramid and ice sculptures of people in the Faiyum desert, photographs of which years later were used in the Kunst Im Bau exhibition 6 : 9 Weltversprechen, 13. January 2017 in Munich, Germany.[10] In July 2017 the exhibition "Bleaching Time" for the Textile Center of Haslach[11] and in September 2017 "River Talks" in the Chapel on OK-Platz in Linz took place.[12]