LABORATORY AUSTRIA

An exhibition as part of MemScreen, a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (PEEK call 2010–2012)

Two historical myths – that Austria was the “first victim” of Nazi Germany’s aggression and that Austrians were victims of the war – were cultivated in Austria’s society during the postwar era through family narrations and popular images. Based on these specific ways of presenting history and the development of counter
narrations, Austria can be used as a laboratory for the politics of history as well as the construction and deconstruction of historical myths in general. Focusing on specific examples, the exhibition “Laboratory Austria” examines how the family, organizations of civil society, museums, and archives deal with their legacy, and how history is represented in the public arena. The exhibits are contextualized by research material which is available to the public as an open archive. The “Laboratory Austria” research team invites groups, associations, experts, and family members to discuss and develop the exhibited projects.

Leveled Landscapes, a photo series by Tal Adler, examines specific landscapes all over Austria, and raises the question how we perceive and want landscape to be rendered in the context of national and local historiography. The project Dispersed Fragments by Tal Adler and Karin Schneider deals with the way museums – from small local spaces to national major institutions – present and teach history. In Vienna – Fragments of a short visit, Michal Bar-Or’s fascination with nineteenth-century remnants translates itself into a series of photographs of Vienna’´s cultural institutions. In their project Voluntary Participation, Tal Adler
and Karin Schneider approach various Austrian associations in existence since at least 1938 and invite the people working for them to pose for a photographic group portrait. The voluntary participation in this process challenges the groups with the concepts of heritage, complicity, responsibility, guilt, commemoration, and group politics. Against the background of this panoramic view, “Laboratory Austria” zooms in on the universe of a family and its connection with Austria’s history: Reichel komplex by Friedemann Derschmidt is a closed weblog for members of his large family. Its participatory process aims at collecting family myths and narratives as well as at supporting family members confronted with awkward questions of their ancestor’s guilt and involvement in the Nazi movement. Shimon Lev started his Family Photo Diary, a collection of thousands of photographs portraying various aspects of family life, in the 1990s. His father, Professor of Physics William Löw was born in Vienna in 1921. He was the only member of Lev‘s family who was not murdered in the Holocaust. In 2012, Shimon Lev extended his photographic research to Vienna, tracing his paternal
family’s rootes.

LABORATORY AUSTRIA:
research and development

Laboratory on demand
Groups, clubs, and associations that have not been invited so far, yet would like to participate in the research into Austria’s civil society and present their concept of dealing with their legacy may book a workshop with the research team at the working space of “Laboratory Austria.” Additonal external experts and researchers may be invited. Please contact Karin Schneider and Tal Adler under: gruppenportrait@gmail.com

Public laboratory
Public lectures and panel discussions will examine exemplary politics of history case studies (in German).
Sat, 06.04.2013, 4 p.m.

Politics of history case study: “The Swarovski family and its politics of history”
Open lecture by Horst Schreiber, historian
Sun, 07.04.2013, 3 p.m.

“How the history of politics shapes the politics of history in small community museums ”
Presentation of curatorial concepts and discussion with directors of local museums and museologists
Wed, 17.04.2013, 6 p.m.

“It is exactly what you cannot speak about you have to speak about ” Pierre Passett
Open lecture by Karl Fallend, psychoanalysist
Wed, 24.04.2013, 6 p.m.

Politics of history case study: “The Burschenschaften [Austrian student fraternities] and their PIVOTAL ROLE BETWEEN
RIGHT-WING and NEO-NAZISM”
Open lecture by Heribert Schiedel, Documentation Center of the
Austrian Resistance

LABORATORIUM ÖSTERREICH
LABORATORY AUSTRIA
Eine Ausstellung des Forschungsprojektes
MemScreen [gefördert vom FWF im Rahmen von PEEK 2010–2012]
An exhibition as part of MemScreen, a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund [PEEK call 2010–2012]

Teilnehmer_innen / Participants
Tal Adler, Michal Bar-Or, Friedemann Derschmidt, Shimon Lev, Karin Schneider

Kurator_innen / Curators
Tal Adler, Friedemann Derschmidt, Karin Schneider