Infelicitous Efficacy: Alfred Hrdlicka’s Memorial against War and Fascism

Abstract

Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka’s Monument against War and Fascism (1988/91) in central Vienna is the focal point of this article, which asks what contested images in public places do. Hrdlicka’s memorial is treated as a symptom of the changing Austrian memory culture of the late 1980s. We locate the memorial in the context of its realisation and reflect on the performative force, which results from its central sculpture and point of contention: the bronze figure of the so-called Street-washing Jew. This visual element caused prominent after-effects such as public discussions and artistic interventions. Two such interventions by artists Steven Cohen (2007) and Ruth Beckermann (2015) will be briefly invoked in relation to what we argue is this memorial’s blind spot. In their own distinct performative ways, all three works make visible how Austrian participations in the Nazi crimes are being negotiated in the public space over a period of 30 years. However, since only Hrdlicka’s monument is permanently installed, its central image echoes a memory culture in transformation no longer valid.