When the Iraqi army recaptured the city of Mosul from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) in 2017, no stone was left unturned in the museums. A video from a soldier showed the destruction in the Mosul Museum. The Salzburg artist Markus Proschek took up exactly this scene in his painting “Mosul Museum”: two empty pedestals, none of the works of art that once stood on them remained following the occupation by IS.
Three-part exhibition project
This painting is one of 14 works (groups) that can currently be seen in the newly renovated old market judge’s house near Bad Ischl. Yesterday the exhibition “The Life of Things: Stolen – Kidnapped – Saved” opened as part of the Salzkammergut Capital of Culture. The show is part of the project “The Journey of Things”, in which the Lentos Art Museum in Linz deals with how the National Socialists hid high-ranking works of art in the salt mine in Bad Aussee from 1944 onwards. While 80 of these works can be seen in Lentos and the art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888–1965) is the focus in Bad Aussee, the exhibition in Lauffen opens up a look at the problematic approach to art today.
“Art and culture are repeatedly taken over, stolen and destroyed by victors, this is not a phenomenon of Adolf Hitler,” said Elisabeth Schweeger, artistic director of the Capital of Culture. A look at Ukraine shows that the topic is current, said Lentos director Hemma dirt, who designed the exhibition with Markus Proschek: “Museums there have to be evacuated or they will be robbed.”
Three works by a collective of plantation workers from the Congo will also be shown in Lauffen, some of which were created with the Dutch artist Renzo Martens and are currently on display at the Venice Biennale. The focus is on a spiritual figure, carved during an uprising in 1931, depicting a hated Belgian colonial official. The figure was lost and only appeared in the USA in 1972. Now the plantation workers have designed digital representations of this character, which they are selling as digital works of art (NFTs). The proceeds are used to buy back land, which is now farmed collectively. “The mechanisms of the art market are used for de-colonization,” said Proschek.
The exhibition demands a great deal of concentration from the viewer; hardly any of the works can be deciphered at first glance. Anyone who makes this effort will be rewarded with new insights and surprising perspectives.
Journey of images
The exhibition “Robbed – Kidnapped – Rescued” in the Old Market Judge House in Lauffen near Bad Ischl can be seen until September 1st (Wednesday – Sunday, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.). It is part of the “Journey of Images” project, which deals with works of art that the National Socialists had stored in the Aussee salt mine from 1944 onwards. The main show runs until September 8th at Lentos in Linz. In the Kammerhofmuseum Bad Aussee, the focus is on art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt until November 3rd.
Author
Herbert Schorn
Editor culture and life
Herbert Schorn
