we are back, and busy with life outside this project. i dropped the ball on keeping up with this blog but will return with more pics once the artists of Magnet Mafia start placing magnets around Denver. the Magnet Mafia website & myspace page have current photos so rather than duplicating their effort, i hope you will visit their sites.

magnetmafia.com

check out lots of pics of austria placements here

magnet mafia my space has some videos etc.

now we are in graz – a wonderful small city with at least a bit of steel in it. much of the steel is painted and the magnets won’t stick. the weather is cold and humid and the magnets don’t stick well under these conditions. here’s a pic of a failed attempt – although steel, we simply couldn’t get the magnet to stick. we are being assisted by our host family. victor (whose legs you see here) remarked yesterday that although he walks the streets of graz nearly every day, he has never noticed the small stencil grafitti that is in the main square, nor has he sought out places rich with graffiti such as the one pictured here. we are having impact!

here are a couple more shots of this section under the bridge between downtown and the kunsthasse art museum (which looks like some sort of spaceship). note the sticker which translates to ‘you are loved’

see the magnet mafia magnet? sweet . . .

yesterday we went to Kirchdorf, and today to Wels. both towns have lots of steel so we were able to place some magnets. tomorrow we got to Graz, then on to Vienna where we expect to place a good number more. we had a chance to put alot of the magnets up on a beautiful piece of rusted steel for a temporaroy exhibit at the studio of anette friedl.

today we made plans to put magnets on a taxi cab, and maybe a school bus as well. plans afoot to adorn a train; documentation will be a challenge. we met julia (cab driving ceramicist) who is taking us to linz, the biggest steel town in austria & home of voest (steel company . . . look it up!). perhaps there we will find enough steel on the streets to hang a magnet or two.

we then got distracted by a visit from the three kings, and the mad hatter. the mad hatter (franziska roesch) started a business of making wondrous felt hats because she stopped dying her hair and wanted something bright up top. made entirely of recycled materials, we are now confident that the tops of our heads will be warm enough for us to focus on magnets!

today we were interviewed by herr joseph aigner, who writes for a weekly paper that is distributed throughout the entire salzkammergut (salt region in the heart of austria). we had some fun trying to find steel in this town for our group photo . . . will post a pdf of the german version of the article next week, as well as some pictures. we also had a conversation with our cultural referree, frau margit schartmüller, and discussed the importance of projects like this to the cultural growth of the community of altmünster.

today we started some magnets on their way to london – via a vintage citroen (you know, the french cars that lift up when you start them? btw – this is not a lemon).

takin’ a break from our mistresses of mafioso assignment, we spent most of our day with steckerlfisch (you know, those fish on sticks?)

today the signtologist magnet, depicting arnold schwarzenegger, took a dive into the traun (a river that flows through gmunden). rescue operations are being explored. will keep you posted.

watch it on youtube!

this is the realm of aluminum, copper and wood. very little steel. today we were in hallstatt; a tiny village perched on a lake. here salt is mined and the sun shines but 3 hours a day – frickin’ cold! even mid-day most of the metal had a layer of frost preventing magnet’s sticking- the biggest ice crystals i have ever seen. but we persevered and placed 2 small magnets.

pics soon . . .

a couple moments of panic when the luggage with most of the magnets almost missed getting tagged at DIA, i was told my flight didn’t exist and some rental car madness in munich. but we have arrived and are welcomed by the town of Almunster. Magnet Mafia posters are all over town; we met with our ‘cultural referee’ today, and will install magnets for a 2 day display in the town offices next week. we will also be interviewed for an article in a regional newspaper. there is a brief snippet in the local monthly newsletter already.

more news anon