art drive in
art drive in is an art project in the public sphere conceived by Verena Unterberger and curated by Benno Simma. It led to the creation of seven permanent, site-specific artworks by contemporary artists in the Parking Thermae car park. The project was supported by the Kurbad AG society, who renovated the entire spa complex, and was carried out with the cooperation of its former president Manfred König. Its aim was to encourage a critical reflection of the public sphere by adding a new significance to a purely functional building like an underground car park–normally a transitional and nondescript place.
Each one of the artists was allotted an area in and around the car park (total size: 60,000 m2).
Benno Simma (Bruneck/Brunico, 1948) is an architect (with a degree from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura/IUAV in Venice), artist, designer, musician, composer and university lecturer; he was the founding head of the Academy of Design of Bozen/Bolzano and rector of the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Rome