Moko Jumbie
Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof, Vienna 2025
Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof has undergone extensive renovation in recent years. The building’s mirrored façade was removed and now allows a view into the individual storeys, thus providing a human-scale reference.
The Viennese artist collective Steinbrenner/Dempf & Huber addressed this striking and qualitative building redesign with the life-size sculpture group “Moko Jumbie,” positioned at various points along the main façade.
The artists cut up white plastic miniature figures used for architectural models. They then reassembled the individual parts with tweezers under magnifying glasses using adhesives in the desired positions. This resulted in ossified figures: an Atlantean, one climbing over floors, and two figures performing an acrobatic feat.
The miniature sculptures were 3D scanned with all adhesive residue, scaled to average human size, cast in aluminum, equipped with stilts up to 11 meters long, and painted so that it remains unclear whether the sculptures, with their apparent verdigris patina, are perhaps older than the building.
After four years of preparatory work in close collaboration with the architects and the steel construction company, “Moko Jumbie” was installed in the fall of 2024. The building is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2025.
Moko Jumbie are traditional Caribbean stilt walkers associated with carnivals and other festivals. Their tradition goes back to African ghost and protector figures who came to the Caribbean through the slave trade.
Project participants
Mold making: Organic Form Productions
Cast aluminum: Kunstguss Loderer
Statics: Reinhard Schneider
Logistics, steel construction, assembly: Pichler Projects GmbH
Consulting, transport: Obenauf
Engineering: Jakob Peleska
Consulting Colors: Bernhard Hausegger
External studios: Claudia Märzendorfer, Roland Reiter
Heavy haulage: Gruschina Transport GmbH
Project assistance: Benedikt Salchegger
Scans: 3-Dee.at
Architects: Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Josef Weichenberger Architects