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Dinkhauser Kartonagen receives Maecenas Award 2004
We are thrilled to have won the Maecenas Award 2004 awarded by the IWK (Initiative for Economy and Art - www.iwk.at) in the category "Art and Science". We won the prize for our intermedia company profile "Dinkhauser gehalten", consisting of video, photography and sculpture works.
Dinkhauser Kartonagen was inspired by the Swiss artist Jeannot Schwarz to do this extravagant company profile. Mixing various ingredients like finger prints made of aluminium, weak currents and video snapshots, we painted a holistic picture of our company, which by far exceeds regular company profiles.
We consider our engagement in culture, art and architecture an integral part of our identity, through which we want to help create our social environment beyond the mere commercial.
We are very pleased to have won this award which we were able to accept among other well-known Austrian companies like Magna Steyr, Wiener Städtische Allgemeine Versicherung, Hotel Le Meridien and Der Kleinen Zeitung.
Resume by Gertrude Schäfer:
I asked Jeannot Schwarz to do a film project representing the life at Dinkhauser Kartonagen, our philosophy and the hundreds of details of a days work.
I asked an artist who is a philosopher. He tried to communicate his ideas through the uniqueness of the human hands and the untouchability of the inner palms. Jeannot Schwarz walked through the company. He studied the work processes from the office to dispatch. He heard voices, the sound of the machines, footsteps of people and the bell signalling the end of the shift. Jeannot Schwarz saw the people, detached from their personal, private domains, working together on a product which is needed.
His works tells about the transfer from one to the other which results in an end product. Jeannot Schwarz realizes the importance of presentation and communication in the work process.
For me this idea was new, although I had already sensed it within me.
Jeannot Schwarz implements his view of a thriving company:
- Employees show themselves in a portrait. I don't think that I have ever seen so many beautiful faces - free and positive.
- Touchable objects made of wax are given to the employees. They immortalise fingerprints and lines of their skin and will be given those objects after they have been cast in metal as a gift.
- Ferdinand Stahl films people, materials and machines, my thanks go out to him.
- Jeannot Schwarz shows various hand postures of the objects on video. The term "Dinkhauser gehalten" - "Dinhauser held" is born. Jeannot Scharz also recognises some objects by name.
- And finally the last picture: In front of the facade of our high rack warehouse - our beautiful building by Prof. Lackner - employees gather for a goup picture on an ascending stage. Here we can see the process again: by touching the metal object contact is triggered which leads to the group picture.