Since 2003, five large “REM cushions” made of terracotta have invited visitors to linger in the garden of the EPO Vienna Rennweg, which is directly adjacent to the Belvedere.

Barbara Rollmann Boretty on the occasion of the inauguration of the sculptures in Vienna:

Nele Ströbel’s inventive sculptural work is characterized by a conceptual exploration of various materials and themes. Openings of volumes and surfaces from the geometric and from the biomorphic field are characteristic for her spatial sculptures especially for public buildings, where form as a process is in the foreground.

In recent years, a natural mineral phenomenon, the appearance of silicon, has been a focus of her work. The microscopic view of single-celled plants millions of years old opened up new worlds. The monumentalized enlargement and artistic realization of these images as ceramic sculptures creates an arc to the material clay whose basic component is silicon. The first terracottas during the Viennese period at the Academy of Applied Arts were harbingers of this development, which has now reached a climax and is also dedicated to a material that is rare in large-scale sculpture. With the current ceramic sculptures, the artist creates an independent abstract language from the silicate forms in a spatial-architectural dimension.