Pic.: Csaba Nemes, "Never Forget", 2015 (Detail).
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Pic.: Csaba Nemes, "Never Forget", 2015 (Detail). |
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Participants: Curated by: |
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Duration: 29.5.–21.6.2015
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1945: Vienna is at the end of the Second World War 1945; Hotel Metropole lies in ruins. It had been one of the most elegant hotels of the city and a typical example of the Gründerzeit buildings that dot the Vienna Ringstrasse. Immediately after the anschluss, it was taken over by the National Socialists, who transformed it to the biggest Gestapo headquarters of the German Reich. Between 1938 and 1945, the building was the workplace of up to 900 staff members, on whom rests the responsibility for several 10,000 persons being apprehended, arrested, interrogated, tortured, deported and, in some cases, murdered or driven to suicide on the spot. In the context of Into the City, Austrian and international artists will address the culture of memory and the politics of history. Morzinplatz square, Hotel Metropole and other vanished building complexes in the Schwedenplatz area will become the starting points of an exploration of the submerged, forgotten and repressed. Four thematic areas will make up the programme, which in addition to artworks and actions will give space to numerous eyewitnesses, residents and experts as well as to the activists who are dedicated in many places to keeping the memory of the crimes and victims of National Socialism alive. The commitment of individuals and (often small-scale) initiatives will be specially emphasised in this context and critically juxtaposed with the role of local or municipal authorities in present-day endeavours to deal with history. PROGRAMME Production: Into the City is supported by: |