Nike

A harbinger of the forum metall and an emblem of the steel city Linz: in 1977 a replica of the ancient goddess of victory "Nike of Samothrace" was installed on the roof of the Art University Linz. The placement of the eight meter high metal sculpture suspended from a metal scaffold caused a sensation in Linz.

Above the Heads of the People of Linz

The location chosen by the initiators of the forum metall, visible from afar, was the west bridgehead building of the Art University Linz. The large sculpture weighing about 500 kilograms was mounted there in the summer of 1977 on a steel ramp sloping steeply to the east. In this way, the photographic replica of NIKE, opening up on two sides, was easily visible from the Main Square of Linz and from the Nibelungen Bridge. At night the figure glowed silver with integrated neon lights.

A Goddess Made of Aluminum and Steel

The model was the famous "Nike of Samothrace" (180 BC), the two and a half meter original of which is on display as a marble sculpture in the Louvre in Paris. The headless body of the winged goddess of victory was made by the internationally known architecture and design group Haus-Rucker-Co out of aluminum. They had a two by eight meter large photographic reproduction of the silhouette etched directly onto single metal plates in the United Metal Works Ranshofen-Berndorf. The historical model for the mounting of the NIKE, an eight meter long metal scaffold, was supplied by a podium by the Russian avant-garde artist El Lissitzky for Lenin from 1920.

Fierce Devotion – and Equally Fierce Rejection

No one in Linz was indifferent to the NIKE, when it was installed on the roof of the Art University Linz in late August 1977 even before the opening of the forum metall. "Ragged scarecrow" or a signal that "at last something is happening in the cultural province"? The pros and contras surrounding the NIKE divided the population like political issues, filling the letters to the editor columns of the Upper Austrian daily newspapers. The proponents of the NIKE included famous artists like Christo, Joseph Beuys, Friederike Mayröcker and Ernst Jandl. The NIKE was finally removed from the roof of the Art University 27 months later in November 1979. The date was kept secret for fear of demonstrations around the nighttime removal of the controversial metal sculpture. By way of Düsseldorf, the NIKE subsequently ended up in Frankfurt am Main. However, a planned installation there at the German Architecture Museum was never realized.