“SoS Gate” (State of Sabotage, Territorial Phantom) by Robert Jelinek
Since 2013, a seemingly ordinary, yet very intriguing piece of art is on display in front of the birthplace of the Austrian author, Georg Trakl.
State of Sabotage was the result of a project by Czech artist Robert Jelinek, which began in 2003 and ended in August 2013. He founded the fictional state “SoS” on an uninhabited Finnish island, establishing relations both with artists as well as embassies. Starting in 2004, manhole covers were installed in different cities intended to epitomize a virtual connection.
These manhole covers are each 80 cm in diameter and represent a shifting of static state boundaries, a new state marking (SoS) as well as artistic sculpture. The SoS manhole cover on Waagplatz in Salzburg was the last in the series, with others located in Barcelona, Nice, Biel, Ferrara and many Austrian cities.
