Paul Feichter

Paul Feichter

Paul Feichter, *1964

The artist

Paul Feichter still works for the Museum of Mining at the Prettau copper mine today, where he looks after the two cement-copper plants. This activity is a tradition among the miners who have mined cement copper here since at least 1561. It requires patience to extract cement copper. At least twice a week, the cement copper sludge formed with the help of a bacterium is swept along the wooden gutters and fed into a collecting basin: then, at longer intervals, the copper sludge is filled into containers.
Paul Feichter has been doing this job since May 2017. Even before the Museum opened, this artist from the Ahrntal Valley had a strong relationship with cement-copper. In 1996, as part of the Kunstmyst group, he organised the symposium entitled “Kunst berg MYST werk fest”, including an exhibition and a theatre performance. At that time Paul Feichter was working together with the copper cement plant and got to know the then supervisor of the plant, Alois Hofer. This aroused his interest in the plant, which he retains to this day.