Project

5 to 6 days in the mountains | 14 listening spaces | 1 stone desert | 0 views of civilization | 3000 m altitude | 56 kilometers | 2065 m highest elevation | 3 years production time

How can I feel the future? The Great Space Walk is a meticulously composed audio piece by Christoph Viscorsum in collaboration with Andreas Hagelüken, gently guiding us out of our seemingly perfect world into a radically primordial wilderness. Audio tracks on your smartphone will serve as mileposts. A composition of voices in your headphones belonging to people working on alpine farms, in sciences, dancing, bioengineering, mountaineering, and spirituality converges with listeners and nature creating experiential spaces.

Such a process takes time: You take your first steps in the intimacy of your own bathroom, the path then leads you from Bad Ischl in five or six days from alpine cabin to alpine cabin, interspersed with long phases of silence from one audio space to the next. In the stone desert on the alpine plateau you, the human being, can unite with space around us – essential for collectively shaping a sustainable future. The descent will lead you through the Stodertal to the last station back to your ordinary life – where the Great Space Walk truly begins.

The Great Space Walk is neither a story to listen to, nor is it a podcast nor a museum’s guide. There are no chronologically listed facts and you are not confronted by talking heads. The experience only becomes palpable once you connect with the real places along the way.

This artwork was developed in an intensive production process that was years in the making. The interviewees shaped their thoughts in the respective spaces, over several days. The composition took place in a mobile studio in the church, on the summer pastures and in the Totes Gebirge.

The first part of the way (bathroom, parish church Bad Ischl, Rettenbachalm) is accessible all year round. From Rettenbachalm to Hinterstoder, you will hike on a high plateau, unique in the Alpes, at an altitude between 1700 and 2000 meters, without a glimpse at civilization. Without major ups and downs, you will walk east for days. The route follows marked trails and can be mastered when in good physical shape and adequate alpine gear. The paths cross rugged rocky terrain in the karst, so walking takes longer than anticipated.

From Rettenbachalm, the trail leads through alpine terrain. There are therefore the corresponding risks and dangers. It is the responsibility of each person taking the route to check whether they have the necessary skills and knowledge to deal with the resulting dangers. Everyone is responsible for obtaining the necessary professional advice. Nature conservation regulations must be complied with.
An unaccompanied, unguided ascent from the Ischlerhütte on is only recommended for experienced mountaineers. At three points (tracks 8, 9, 12), the Great Space Walk takes a side trip
into pathless terrain, leaving the marked trails. Track 8 leads into the immediate vicinity of an unsecured doline, a sinkhole. There is an increased danger of falling. Here, too, you walk at your own risk. It is not recommended to hike the trails in snowy conditions and in off-season when the cabins are closed. In the Totes Gebirge, there is no telephone network available over long distances and emergency calls cannot be made. Make sure to take sufficient drinking water with you on the tour!

For those, who don’t want to hike alone for five to six days, but prefer to be accompanied by professionals, you can contact them here:

For months, Christoph Viscorsum and Andreas Hagelüken composed, listened and edited in the Totes Gebirge.
Mountain guide Christoph Hüthmair during the recording.

What Do I Need?

You’ll need five to six days for the entire Great Space Walk. It is possible, however, just to do the first spaces of day zero and day one (bathroom, parish church Bad Ischl, Rettenbachalm).

You will need a smartphone and headphones. You can listen to the first two spaces – bathroom and church – online:

For space three and all the following spaces, you will have to download the audio files in advance, as there won’t be a stable internet connection available along the trails.

Simple hiking gear is necessary as from space 4, and as of the second stage you will need good hiking equipment. Here is what we suggest for a pack list:

You don’t have to do the whole trail in one go, you can divide it up into modules that suit you, though don’t change the sequence of the stages. Hiking time for the individual stages is 3 to 8 hours. From every lodge there are trails back down into the valley: from the Ischlerhütte back to Bad Ischl, from the Hochkogelhaus to Ebensee, from the Appelhaus and Wildenseehütte to Grundlsee or Altaussee, from the Pühringerhütte to Gössl or to Grünau im Almtal, from the Prielschutzhaus to Hinterstoder.