Shortly before the industrial wasteland of Salzburg’s “Stadtwerkeareal” was converted into the Stadtwerk Lehen residential district, the empty former headquarters of Salzburger Stadtwerke (now Salzburg AG) was occupied by skaters who used the abandoned office furniture to build their own skate park. This creative “interim use” was captured in 2010 by the photographer Andrew Phelps in his series “720 (two times around)” and immerses us in a world of boisterous, liberating action, do-it-yourself culture, and self-empowering appropriation of space in a city where subcultures and youth cultures are usually banished to the suburbs. Phelps’s painstakingly composed works show neither people nor the dynamics of skateboarding—wheel marks and graffiti are the only traces of use. Rather, the photographs bear witness to the resourcefulness of the builders of the obstacles, ramps, and courses, which, in the abandoned spaces, at times have the look of sculptures or environments. They also remind the artist of his own passion for skateboarding and allow him to draw parallels with his activity as a photographer. “It took me some years to realize it, but I have taken my unspectacular style of skateboarding with me into my photographic approach. I was always happier with a long, smooth tail-slide than with a flailing, spinning 360. Just as now I am happier with photographs that carry me along for a while than with those that jump out and scream for attention. When I dream of skateboarding, I’m Mike McGill. When I dream of photographing, I’m Robert Adams.” [1] (Stefanie Grünangerl)

[1] Andrew Phelps, “720 (two times around)”, artist’s book (Salzburg: self-published, 2010), unpaginated. Mike McGill (1964 Brooklyn, NY, US) is a professional skateboarder who made a lasting impression on the sport throughout the 1980s; Robert Adams (1937 Orange, NJ, US) is a photographer known for his architectural and landscape photographs of the American West.