Re: Syndicate: Do no longer exhibit in Austria!

[Mirko Petric <mpetric@umas.hr>]

Dear Marion, dear all,

I fully agree that the Modernist narration of Nazis is not adequate
to the current situation. Haider is in his way very post-modern (e.g. his
rehtorical strategies, the subtle handling of ambiguity in advertising),
but with his party's assumption of power in the new AUstrian government he
practically has in his hands a very "modernist" national state apparatus.
While a "postmodern" resistance strategy is adequate for what artists
might want to do regarding the problem, the most efficient way to
destabilize his newly acquired direct control of the state power structure
is the political isolation of the country the EU is just carrying out.
Therefore, while I agree that Fleck's narration of Nazis is not adequate,
his suggestion for boycott may be the adequate response to one aspect of
the current situation. This, however, in my view, does not mean that
foreign artists and curators should not cooperate with Austrians, but that
they should consider boycotting events organized and/or subsidized by the
Austrian state. It would perhaps be wrong to do this in the case of less
"post-modern" states, where  sometimes the only way to exert an influence
is to cooperate through ministries of culture or through the university
system. But this could be just the right solution to the current Austrian
situation: the increased presence of foreign contemporary artists and a
simultaneuous boycott of official cultural institutions would perhaps be
the adequate resistance strategy. In any event, it would at least make
Haider's followers nervous.

P.S. For people employed by Austrian "alternative" state-subsidized
institutions: unfortunately, my experience with situations in which people
of Haider-like cultural and political preferences take over is that the
current funding is going to be cut soon. It would be wise to start looking
for alternative sources of funding.


> Another problem I see in the argumentation of Robert Fleck is that he
> believes that the  Narration of Nazi Germany is to be adaptable to
> post-modern political situations. That artist wants to leave the country is
> sad... But before and now a lot of people are deported and misshandled who
> wanted to get IN to Austria, who weren't Austrians, and not at all state
> financed artists with passports. Already people were day by day expelled
> and misshandled! This modernist narration of Nazis ist not capable for the
> actual situation, I guess. 

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