The infamous dungeon of the Austrian state, the Second Republic, that appears to comprise nothing but carcere oscura, shady characters, dark deeds, secret societies, secret decisions, intrigues, finds its artistic depiction, its mirror image, in this Austria room. By using the Austrian national colours red and white, by giving meaning to and politicizing ‘free’ colours, the symbols start flowing. The viewer not only finds themselves in the picture, but also becomes a prisoner, a hostage of the Austrian state – which is their actual condition. The gruesome, suffocating, closed and finite nature of Austrian society and the block-like lack of freedom nesting within that are experienced by the viewer as a real situation.

(Excerpt from: ‘Peter Weibel, Malerei und Geometrie’, in: Wolfgang Drechsler [ed.], Zeichen im Fluß, exhibition catalogue, Museum moderner Kunst Wien, 1990, pp. 110−115)

The installation was first realized at the Kulturhaus Graz in 1982. A reconstruction took place at the mumok, then called the Museum of the Twentieth Century, in Vienna in 1990 on the occasion of the exhibition Zeichen im Fluß [Fluid Symbols]. The reinstallation in Buchberg Castle occurred in the context of the Buchberger Sommer 1992 [Buchberg Summer 1992]. Since 2016 the installation has been part of the collection of the mumok − Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and was displayed in the exhibition Construction_Reflection.

www.peter-weibel.at