Franz Kapfer

Galerie Hohenlohe Bäckerstrasse 3 A-1010 Vienna Austria (city map) Send E-mail tel +43 (0)1 - 512 97 20 www.galeriehohenlohe.at

Franz Kapfer
zur Errettung des Christentums / in deliverance of Christianity

With his in Deliverance of Christianity, Franz Kapfer offers a series of works, both sculptures and photographs, that deal with the construction of Austrian identity and history. In the centre of his artistic explorations stands the memorial, the iconographic portrayal of the so-called age of the hero.

A memorial is a monument that is raised in the memory of a person or an event. Memorials function as signs of remembrance that should lead the collective memory on the path of history and create an identity. Thus memorials, as Franz Kapfer also points out, are part of the new historical discourse that was introduced during the period in question: the nation. A nation is not only determined by a territory and its population, but also needs political symbols, myths, events and stories that can be recorded visually and in writing.

The memorials that have been erected in Austria are very often related to the centuries-long hostility and wars between the Habsburgers and the Ottoman Empire. "The iconography and semantics of these portrayals show the following chief characteristics: First, a picture of the Turk as an enemy, which was handed down in the Austrian cultural memory in this form. The Turks are portrayed therein as the prototype of the barbaric, heathen enemy from the East that threatens Christian Austria. Second, the victories of the Habsburgers and of Prince Eugen are pictured as being enormously triumphant." (Karl Klambauer, 2005) Also following the Habsburg era, especially during the period of Austrian fascism, this picture of the Turkish threat served as a welcome picture of the foe in various political camps, and was easily transferred to other antagonists such as Jews, Marxists or women.

Franz Kapfer has tied this artistic project to his studies on the role of male identity. He consistently includes the categories religion, nation and war, which, with regard to the new "Western crusades", provide volatile starting points that have lost nothing of their current importance.