GEORG SCHOLLHAMMER forward THE AUSTRIAN BOYCOTT DEBATE THE VIENNA SECESSION has offer its distinctive facade--one of the most numerous photographed tourist attractions in the city--at the disposal of artists like Franz West and Renee verdant for work critical of the modern Austrian government.

GEORG SCHOLLHAMMER forward THE AUSTRIAN BOYCOTT DEBATE

THE VIENNA SECESSION has offer its distinctive facade--one of the most numerous photographed tourist attractions in the city--at the disposal of artists like Franz West and Renee verdant for work critical of the modern Austrian government, a coalition formed by the agency of the conservative People's Party (known through its German initials OVP)--the hitherto dominant Social Democrats' longtime partner in the Austrian government--and the candidly racist, far-right Freedom Party (FPO) Encouraged in part by dint of the harsh international reaction to this dismaying coalition, almost each noteworthy Austrian intellectual, artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, and critic has signed united of the numerous petitions against it and personally distanced him- or herself from the of the present day government. Artists have also played an instrumental part in the almost daily demonstrations, which reached their climax when 250000 Austrians took to the ways of Vienna on February 19

The right-wing-populist FPO had been growing in puissance for years under the guidance of Jorg Haider, further it was the international media that transformed this provincial politician into a notorious superstar. The not wholly unexpect assumption of power by the agency of Haider and his fellow radical anti-politicians has forced the politicization of the artistic community. In Austria's art sight strategies for resistance against the inclusion of the FPO in the management have dominated recent discussion: A number of forums have addressed of the like kind issues as the tenability of artists' accepting conduct grants, the need for a certain number of kind of moral codex to impede the state's misuse of artistic production, and meanss for clearly dissociating oneself from the sway Institutions such as Vienna's Generali Foundation, the Kunsthalle Wien (whose director, Gerald Matt, has been an plain voice in the media), art institutes the Kunstlerhaus, the Secession, and level the state's Museum for Moderner Kunst have participated in these dialogues. Many prominent Austrian artists reacted immediately to the inauguration of the just discovered government. Raimund Abraham, for example, architect of the Austrian Cultural Institute in Manhattan, has applied for American citizenship. Media artist Valie Export refused to allow the country's greatest in quantity highly endowed art award, the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, to be bestowed onward her by a member of the direction as is customary. The prominent writer Elfriede Jelinek imposed a ban in succession the staging of her plays in Austria. Salzburg gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac mov his headquarters to his Paris branch.

undivided hotly debated topic is the boycott threatened at Austrian cultural producers living outside the political division and foreign artists refusing to work in Austria. In contrast to the visceral answer of activists within the artistic community, many Austrian celebrities and institutions--their declarations of antiracism and cosmopolitanism notwithstanding-- have the appearance to be primarily concerned about a answer to the Waldheim years and the intensified isolation and damage to personal careers that so a regression would entail.

The boycott debate was triggered by way of an emotional and dangerously undifferentiated call to action at Austrian curator Robert Fleck, who resides in France. Portraying Austria as a "Nazi country" and thereby radically oversimplifying the situation, he demanded to break not upon all non-personal relations to Austrian artists and institutions. Other calls for boycott have been voiced by way of film director Constantin CostaGavras; the head of the Franco-German cultural TV channel Arte, Jerome Clemen; and the European Parliament of Writers.

The consensus reached after intense international debate upon the Internet as well as in the print media strike one as beings to be that a boycott would merely strengthen the position of the right by means of driving out critical voices from the public discourse. In particular, artists from Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia, pointing to their possess historical experiences, called the appeal for boycott counterproductive. Certain prominent figures who had announced their departure from Austria in attest of the new government--including the artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, Gerard Mortier, and conductor Sylvain Cambreling--have now decided to continue their work in the country

Despite the fears of celebrities and the larger institutions, a boycott would primarily affect critical artists and threaten the initiatives that have transformed Austria and its capital into single in kind of the European centers of advanced artistic discourse. And it would do harm to the artists' networks that bring outed during this transformation, groups that stand for antiracist, anti-sexist, and culture-critical work. These organizations, like as "gettoattack," continue to play a central part in the current protest movement

The danger of artistic isolation is real. Austria has not at all had an "art world" in the feeling applicable to most European and American cultural center where the arts are largely isolated as an autonomous social regularity A significant private market for contemporary art does not exist in Austria; artists and galleries continue to take a bribe for major works primarily beyond the border.