-VALIE EXPORT Center Linz

von am 24. November 2017 um 6:59
Veröffentlicht in: Text

Herbert Kuhner
from Violence Under the Guise of Art
or Third Reich Recycling

 The Mission

“The mission of VALIE EXPORT Center Linz is to study and reappraise as well as to mediate and contextualize the renowned artist’s pre-mature legacy.

International in its focus, this Research Centre for Media and Performance Arts also strives to promote the artistic and scientific examination of these very areas.“[1]

In 1977 Valie Export was brought to trial for having engaged in cruelty to animals and found guilty of having tied a canary to a perch. However the scalding of the birds with boiling wax, which had been filmed, came under the statute of limitations.[2] This “art object” was on view as part of the Export Exhibition, introduced by Elfriede Jelinek, in the Museum of the Twentieth Century in Vienna in March of 1997.

 On March 17, 1997, in Treffpunkt Kultur, a program devoted to culture on ORF, Austrian State TV, films by Export were broadcast. In one scene Export uses a bloody kitchen knife to slice the neck of a turtle, a mouse and a parrot, but the actual decapitations are deleted by film cutting.[3]

Wishful Thinking

Art critic Kristian Sotriffer refutes: “The birds were of course not ‘preserved’ in wax while they were alive .…The report in the yellow press was fictitious and was designed to cause an uproar among petit bourgeois readers.”[4]

Valie Export “herself”: “A bird is tied to a pedestal with a thin cord. I kneel in front of the bird on the pedestal and then I pour scalding wax over it. When I knock the pot of wax over with my head, the bird’s head is inundated and my right hand is doused. Then I pour wax on my feet and my left hand……..

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-An “Exile-Jew from America“

von am 14. November 2017 um 16:52
Veröffentlicht in: Politics

An “Exile-Jew from America“

As August faded into September, Vorarlberg Freedom Party Chief Bertram Egger has labeled Hanno Loewy, Director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems, Voralberg, an “Exile-Jew from America … Austrian politics are none of his business.” Herr Loewy had criticized the political posters of the Freedom Party.

“Exile-Jew is not an insult, as far as I’m concerned….We will not tolerate foreign criticism.”
– Heinz-Christian Strache, Freedom Party Chief, ORF Sommergespräche, August 24, 2009

Herr Egger, the courageous patriot: “We will not let the courage of our patriotic commitment for our homeland be diminished.”
– Österreich newspaper, August 26, 2009, p. 9

“There is absolutely no reason to apologize.” stated Herbert Kickl, Austrian Freedom Party Secretary General.
– vorarlberg.orf, August 24, 2009

Hanno Loewy is neither American, nor is he an “exile Jew.” He is a German citizen who is a resident of Austria, and he is a Jew.

I returned to Austria decades ago. “Exile-Jew from America” fits me to a T. I am the genuine article, the real McCoy. Those who did not flee cannot speak. Their lips were sealed forever.

Yes, the song is “Happy Days Are Here Again!” But when were those Happy Days not here?

* * *

Exil-Jude aus Amerika

Am 21. August 2009 Bertram Egger FPÖ-Obmann und Landesrat bezeichnete Hanno Loewy, Direktor des Jüdischen Museums in Hohenems, als „Exiljuden aus Amerika, den die österreichische Innenpolitik nichts angehe“.
– DÖW-Mitteilungen, Okt. 2009, S. 193.

Hanno Loewy hatte die politischen Plakate der FPÖ kritisiert.

Egger nochmals: „Wir lassen uns den Mut, für unsere Heimat einzustehen, nicht nehmen.“
– Österreich-Zeitung, 26. August, 2009, S. 9.

„Es gibt überhaupt keinen Grund dafür, sich zu entschuldigen.“
– Herbert Kickl , FPÖ-Generalsekretär, ORF Vorarlberg, 24. August 2009

„Exiljude ist für mich jedenfalls kein Schimpfwort … Ich stehe dazu, daß man sich Kritik von außerhalb verbietet.“
– Heinz-Christian Strache, FPÖ-Chef, ORF-Sommergespräche, 24. Aug. 2009

Hanno Loewy ist Deutscher. Darf man als deutscher Staatsbürger Österreich nicht kritisieren? Darf man als Jude Osterreich nicht kritisieren?

Ich bin ein „Exil-Jude aus Amerika.“ Ich habe Raub und Vertreibung erfahren. Ich mußte emigrieren, um mein Leben zu retten. Die, die damals geblieben sind, können nicht reden.

Das Lied heißt “Happy Days Are Here Again”. But when were Happy Days not Here?!

-Herbert Kuhner

-A Career/Eine Karriere

von am 12. November 2017 um 18:32
Veröffentlicht in: Poetry, Polemics, Politics, Translations

A Career

There was an actor
who was a member of the Nazi Party,
who acted in propaganda films
and denounced colleagues to the Gestapo,
causing them to be deported and executed,
and who continued his career after the war
with not one word of regret.

Said actor was used onstage
by Austria’s top dramatist
and Germany’s top director of drama
to expose Nazi thought and spirit
as manifested in present-day society
and pillory personalities who carry on
in the tradition of the Third Reich.

This was by no means opportunism,
rather there was „method in this madness.“
Wasn’t it simply a stroke of genius
to use a Nazi bat to batter Nazi heads

* * *

  Eine Karriere

Es gab einen Schauspieler,
der ein NS-Parteibuch hatte,
in Propagandafilmen spielte
und Kollegen bei der Gestapo denunzierte,
die dann im Lager ermordet worden sind.
Der Schauspieler spielte auch weiter
nachdem der Krieg vorbei war,
ohne irgendeine Reue zu zeigen.

Österreichs größter Dramatiker
und Deutschlands größter Theaterdirektor
bauten den Schauspieler auf,
um Nazi-Gedankengut
in der heutigen Gesellschaft,
und Persönlichkeiten, die es verbreiten,
auf der Bühne anzuprangern.

Dies hat überhaupt nichts
mit Opportunismus zu tun.
Ist es nicht einfach genial,
einen Nazi-Knüppel zu verwenden,
um auf Nazi-Köpfe zu hauen?

-Herbert Kuhner