Z Boat

By Rainer Prohaska

In the course of a two-month boat journey from Krems/Austria to Ruse/Bulgaria, the artist Rainer Prohaska and his crew built a swimming sculpture based on a simple frame construction.
The frame construction consisted of 3 wooden boats (“Zillen”), which were connected with aluminum trusses. The extensions of the sculpture took place during the trip on the river Danube. All used materials and objects were found, bought, or exchanged in the regions along the river banks. The requirements on this „work in progress“ were social functions of the constructed elements (sanitary facilities, places to live and sleep, cooking and relaxing areas), as well as a modular architecture to adapt the construction to specific needs and to transport the whole boat to the exhibition locations. Connections were established exclusively with tension belts and cable straps..