The series “Land in sight” has been established in 2005. The “landing” of the ship “Grünberg” constituted its launch at the banks of the “Große Mühl” and “Die Station”. Under the title “Stifter-anchoring” a theatrical large scale installation has been realised on the occasion of Stifter’s 200th birthday anniversary. The Landestheater Linz and Stifterjahr were cooperation partners. This cooperation continued in the subsequent years: In 2006 Joachim Eckl realised within the Mozart year the theatrical production “Mozart-digestion” in cooperation with actors and singers from the Landestheater Linz, the grammar school Neufelden and many further artistic partners.

These first 2 years were dedicated to the two artists Mozart and Stifter, but then the series refined in its aim of a social sculpture dealing with a social-political volatile issue. The basic notion of “Land in sight” is to bring together people in a creative cooperation which is orientated on a mutual ground and value-system and therefore works like a lively organism. In this place art originates from an atmospheric demand and focuses on a vanishing point in reality and concrete action. The topics “migration” and “everyday-life of commuters” clearly show this intention and became centre of the artistic debate in the projects “All in the same boat” and “The commuter’s Grand Prix”. Also the list of participants has enlarged and extended over the years: National and international artist friends, companies from the region, students and adolescents from Neufelden, migrant women and men from Linz and Neufelden and many more. Joachim Eckl aims to create a fruitful climate as a basis for the development of common concepts as social structures.

“The more social sculptures are being created in small units, the more social prototypes arise. They develop on the basis of concrete structures and then are able to reproduce or be reproduced. Permanent change originates from ideals, from small concrete units of impulse.”