TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
International Airport Montello
2008
eteam. Three-channel projection, map, figures, photographs.
eteam are artists Franziska Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger, who are reinventing land art by questioning issues of investment, ownership and the physical, functional and allegorical legacy of place. International Airport Montello (2007-2008) is a collaboration between eteam and the people of Montello, Nevada, centered upon an abandoned airstrip just beyond the 10.05 acres of land eteam purchased at auction. The real, if ephemeral, impact of a large fictional airport complex on a dying town in the desert is explored as guests and cybertourists descend on this remote community. Lamprecht and Moderegger elicit from the community the alliance and willingness to suspend absurdity required to alter the living history of a place. As Airport Manager Ron Abbott states: “if it’s going to be, we’ll create it to be – we’ll create it into existence.”