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Andrea Sodomka :
Theatre Path To Giesshübl Quarry

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Ended
Gießhübl, 1995

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The piece was produced during the performance of the play 'Zwölfeläuten' (Midday Chimes) at Giesshübler Quarry. Four everyday items from pre-1945 were printed as symbols 40 times along the route to the quarry.

This work was realised on the occasion of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the 2nd Republic and in connection with a performance of the play Zwölfeläuten by Heinz R. Unger by the Karltheater Giesshübl at the Giesshübl quarry. Four objects from everyday life before 1945 – a bell, a collecting box, a shortwave radio and an air-raid siren – which have not changed their appearance to this very day, were placed in the asphalt by means of a silkscreen technique. Four different symbols with the same form are distributed forty times along the whole length of the path. Ideas: wreaths and lights that are laid down, but also orders and medals. Chalk signs. A melting-down of luck, but also a melting-down of monuments which do not conform to the system, in order to cast new ones.

Excerpt from: Heinz R. Unger, Zwölfeläuten, ein steirischer Schwank in 4 Akten, Vienna, Kaiser-Verlag. Here in translation.

(From the village Jogl pushes a cart piled high with Nazi relics) Jogl: "Hey Jogl, do us a favour", they said, "You can do it", they said. Now I’m lumbered with the junk: fourteen Mein Kampfs, swastikas galore and half a kilo of Party medals. (He holds up high a portrait of Hitler) Who would’ve thought? Me burying the Führer! Toni: Got to burn all that now, Jogl? Jogl: "Don’t burn it", they said, "Bury it, Jogl, who knows – perhaps we’ll need it again some day!"