Lower Austria falls back into the provincial cliché – Petra Stuiber

One can say a lot about Erwin Proell: for example, that he developed the power-loving black “Lower Austria system” in a way that dominated everything in the country; that he was able to brutally enforce the interests of “his” ÖVP. What one cannot say about him: that he did not pursue a cosmopolitan, diversely interested cultural policy. Proell created a monument to Hermann Nitsch with his own museum, as did Arnulf Rainer and the inventor of Eat Art, Daniel Spoerri. During his tenure, interesting new museums were built and dozens of festivals with international participation, such as the Danube Festival, were “invented” – often against ÖVP resistance.