Norbert Maringer :
Memorial in Amstetten

To commemorate the lives of its Jewish inhabitants the town of Amstetten has created a memorial together with the Lower Austrian Office for Culture and Science. It is simple, straightforward and silent, and as such contrasts with the memorials already existing in the park. As opposed to the typical monumentalism of memorials, Maringer almost conceals his installation in the grass. The work consists of two circles: the outer circle with a diameter of six meters is to remain an uncultivated meadow and delineate itself from the remaining green area of the park. In the inner circle which has a diameter of five meters, twelve glass cylinders have been mounted in the ground. Each glass element is about 80 cm deep and juts out 12 cm from the earth, seemingly floating above the surface. The names of the dead have been burned into the 1cm thick top parts of the glass so that a certain immateriality or reflection is obtained. A glass element is anonymous. This is meant to reflect the helplessness, incomprehension and also sadness felt by the artist. (Katharina Blaas-Pratscher)