Valie Export
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Landschaftsmesser
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A monument was installed in co-operation with the town council of Allentsteig in memory of residents from the area, who between 1938 and 1941 were disloged by the national socialist regime and forced to leave their homes.
The 'landscape knife' created by VALIE EXPORT virtually cuts into the lake, its metal blades reflecting both sun and water. Next to the object a glass pane has been erected, depicting the names of the vacated villages and farmhouses, an area now being used as a military training field. Just as the expulsion all these years ago left a dramatic incision in everyone's lives. VALIE EXPORT too wants to express how painfully struck she was by fate of those people. With this monument she has created a centre of communication, but also a symbol of the dramatic events both of the past and present. For today, the inhabitants of the small town are forced to listen to the shots fired by the military on exercise, a kind of war in peacetime waged in their heads. Konrad Rennert composed a musical piece on this theme '... And bid his ears a little while be deaf ...'. It is performed with live musicians (and/or tape) and deals with 'unheared of' but everyday life events. The writer Rudi Palla compiled the catalogue 'Memorial Allentsteig' on this theme.
(Katharina Blaas-Pratscher)
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