RAL 2009medienfrische 2026 • Temporary Installation • Boden, Austria • 06/26
team: Valentin Fick, David Zauels, Franka Ruhnau
process support: Medienfrische
photos: Udo Frizzi RAL 2009 is a temporary textile installation developed for the opening of Medienfrische in Boden, a village in the municipality of Pfafflar, Austria. A large orange curtain enveloped the village and transformed its entrance into the entrance to the festival. Set against the surrounding meadows, forests and mountains, the fabric introduced a vivid plane of colour into the alpine landscape. Its folds and reflective surface gave the curtain a changing depth and texture. The curtain’s scale and vivid orange colour made the fabric itself the defining element of the intervention. Visitors entered Medienfrische by passing through the curtain. The installation made a familiar route newly perceptible, turning arrival into a physical encounter with the festival. The simple act of crossing a textile boundary connected the village, its surroundings and the opening event through a shared threshold.The orange curtain within the mountainous landscape recalls Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Valley Curtain (1970–72). In Boden, this visual gesture takes on a specific role as a passage that visitors move through to enter the festival.