In 2015, the installation The Missing Image extended Alfred Hrdlicka’s Memorial against War and Fascism by adding two viewers: the historical gawker observing the “scrubbing party” and the implied observer of today, i.e., the citizen of Vienna or the tourist reflected in the gawkers. Regarding the memorial has thus become a far more reflective affair than before the intervention. Looking at it, the observer becomes one link in a chain of viewers.

The intervention has created a place for encounters and controversies in the very heart of Vienna. The pictures’ testimony returned the group of sculptures, which had been discussed as a masterpiece by Hrdlicka until then, to its political ground. The installation once again emphasized the urgency of discussing subjects like exclusion before they end in war and fascism.

The discussions take place on Albertinaplatz. They hardly contain any open anti-Semitic statements like those to be heard in Vienna’s streets in the 1980s, when the attacks were directed against people “fouling their own nest.” In their approving manner, today’s comments are rather aimed at trivialization. A couple having an ice-cream, for example, made the following remark: “It’s good that somebody does it”—meaning the artist to whom the broaching of the subject is gladly left. Many scenes of this kind develop some unintentional humor.

Today’s public discussions contain many implications that the seriousness of accusations suggests to let the burdened past rest, to admit its offences, and to steer clear of associating them with the here and now. Tourist guides may thus raise the rhetorical question how oneself might have acted then before they turn around the next moment to raise their fist to newspaper-selling migrants approaching their group and wish them to hell.

Another reaction to the intervention The Missing Image is the serious commitment to issues of remembrance and the culture of remembrance, of course. The number of laid flowers and wreaths commemorating the Jew forced to scrub the streets on his knees has markedly increased. Next to citizens and tourists, students and scientists ensure to revive the discourse on Albertinaplatz.

This very direct way of anchoring suffering in public space through film images and confronting unprepared people with it has created a performative space, a kind of stage abundant with stories. It is fascinating to mingle with the crowd and listen to these stories. It appeared to be imperative to document them.

The film focuses on travel and city guides as well as teachers with groups of students. The emphasis is on the public discourse as particularly manifest in how the subject is communicated to students and foreigners. How do teachers, travel and city guides integrate the group of sculptures into the promotion and presentation of Vienna as a trademark? How can history be conveyed to young people, and how do these react?

Text: Ruth Beckermann