Arthur Bueno on Mon, 07 Feb 2000 16:15:11 +0100 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
Syndicate: Re: Letter by Robert Fleck |
From: buergel-noack <buergel-noack@EUnet.at> Date: Sonntag, 6. Februar 2000 18:25 Subject: Letter by Robert Fleck Robert Fleck, a former Austrian state curator, who, among other things, tried to organise a state-financed exhibition of Austrian art in Berlin in the beginning of the nineties (a highly nationalist venture, which was ctritcized by parts of the Austrian art scene) wrote a letter, urging the international art community to boycott the Austrian art scene, asking people instead to phone individual Austrian artists regularily to give moral support. He is painting a daily life in Austria along stereotypical 3rd Reich-descriptions (terror against jews and artists), totally neglecting, that the people who are suffering from institutional and individual racism in the Austria of today (among other EU countries), are migrants. Below is a commentary by Roger Buergel, an artist living in Austria, as well as an addendum to this commentary, by Ruth Noack, an art historian living in Austria. Addendum by Ruth Noack, Monday, 7th of February: Dear Friends, I agree with most of the sentiments of Roger's letter below (which I accidentally had him sign in my name yesterday, I'm sorry). The reference to a banana republic, however, seems to me wrong. The fact is, that the Austrian public is much more heterogeneous than it seems to be portrayed by some of the international media; there is a lot of publically voiced dissent against the new governement and we feel that it is important to give this dissent a voice. The art scene is a small, but nervertheless (and curiously widely heard) arena, which can function as one of serveral platforms against the new governement. Even conservative artists (painters!) like Arnulf Rainer and Attersee have reacted immediately by withdrawing their pieces on loan to governemental offices, and this has been reported in mainstream media. As long as there is massive, and for this country astonishingly active dissent within the country, it seems counterproductive to redraw boundaries from the outside. This seems to me to be an act of "othering", which serves to disguise the fact that the EU as a whole has an extreme anti-migratory politics. In other words, though I wholeheartedly agree with every form of boycott of the Austrian governement, I would hope that there are possibilities to differentiate between the governement and the hererogeneous public(s) located within the Austrian nation-state. Ruth Noack Letter from the 6th of February: Dear Friends, in our view Fleck's idea of a boycott of Austria is highly irresponsible. Its emphasis on the nationstate 96 AUSTRIA 96 as well as its inside/outside-differentiation between the (allegedly) endangered Eastern European countries and the civilized West is part of the problem, not of the solution. The effect of cutting off the discourse of the international art world would be same as the boycott of any banana republic shunned by the West: the poor starve, in this case the people who try to resist the implementation of an authoritarian regime. For our resistance we need resources 96 art among other things. We need solidarity, no moral gestures, no phone calls (because we are on the streets and, while shouting, won't hear the cell phone ring). The idea with Naziland is fine but far too easy. Maybe we have to invent some new categories to grasp what's going on. People are quite right in highlighting a profound continuity between the politics of the Socialdemocrats and the new government. The FPD6 is a party elected by a third of the young voters. They are quite plainly not Nationalsocialists. Rather, they follow the appeal of a leader who promises to keep privileges in times of change. We have to win back these voters (or win them at all). Moral masochism, even though it proves entirely satisfying to some, offers no help. Roger M. Buergel ------Syndicate mailinglist-------------------- Syndicate network for media culture and media art information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at> in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress