For 26 years, a two-meter-high cube, formed from the five vowels A, E, I, O, U, has stood on the Herrmann-Kai of the Gmundner Esplanade. The creator of the striking sculpture is the emeritus professor at the Traunkirchner University of the Arts, Josef Linschinger.
Because the five vowels were now badly attacked by rust, they were now sandblasted and painted with special paint (pig iron look). The Rotary Club donated the materials and the municipality did the work.
There are many interpretations of the five vowels – including the imperial Habsburg motto: “All the earth is subject to Austria.” The more sympathetic interpretation comes from Mayor Stefan Krapf: “Vowels hold the language together, without them there would be no understandable speech,” he says. “For me, this is therefore a monument to cohesion through talking to each other.”
Source: Nachrichten
