The timing was of course no coincidence, but the outcome was still uncertain: on Tuesday, the day of the US elections, an exhibition opened at Graz main station. Under the title “Democracies in Danger”, the Styrian Institute for Art in Public Spaces and the Xenos association have invited nine artists and collectives to engage artistically with democracies. These temporary interventions can be seen at nine locations in the Graz urban area until December 10th (Human Rights Day).
“Our democracy as a concept is increasingly being strained and misused and its cornerstones – such as the rule of law, transparency and separation of powers – are being increasingly undermined,” say Maryam Mohammadi, Eva Origin and Joachim Hainzl about the motivation to realize this art project. Right-wing extremist movements are on the rise in several EU countries, and Donald Trump has just been re-elected president in the USA. Likewise, in Central and South America, Asia and Africa, right-wing populist politics promise new salvation.
As part of the art project, you take a visible stance on this. The interpretations of current and past political conflicts are visible in the public space of Graz in neuralgic and discursive places, whose stories are linked to the emergence of democracy, the fight for it and its defeat in times of autocracy and dictatorship. “By explicitly engaging critically with the threats to democracies in the form of art in public spaces, we, together with our cooperation partners, would like to make our contribution to respecting and defending democratic values,” said the team of curators.
On display are murals, mixed media projects, banners, installations and drawings by Franz Kapfer, Helene Thümmel, Doris Jauk-Hinz, Markus Wilfling, Maryam Mohammadi, Dominik Hainzl, Eva Origin and the virtual band “The Cake Escape” from Austria , plus works by the collective Irwin from Slovenia, Zoncy Heavenly from Myanmar, Katcha Bílek from Great Britain and Consuelo Méndez from Venezuela.
