Leo Moringer, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, "love and hate", Gerald Bast

About the work of Leo Moringer, he is artist student at the University of Applied Arts, I could not find anything online, which is leading to a more serious idea about his work. The only thing which caught my attraction is an article in a Viennese newspaper Standard about the whole " Angewandte, love and hate-case". As an artist I would say, the sculpture "love and hate" is well-done - except the pedestal, which is in sculpturing always difficult to solve.

Leo Moringer as far as I know, he positioned his sculpture "love and hate" in front of the main entry at the University of Applied Arts, the 3,5 ton heavy sculpture is an embedded swastika surrounded from an heart. Depend from which side you are looking on it could be the Hindu sign or the logo of the III Reich. Leo Moringer studied in the class of so called "Transmedial art" ( what so ever the meaning of transmedial is). I my view his work is trans-medial or how I would call it, applied art. His work plays with multiple appliances and this is the interesting fact. The current social democratic director, Gerald Bast reacted as most social democrats must do, it is nothing surprising and is based on the social democratic tradition to deal with the III Reich- hide, cover, censor, suppress and do not speak out. He forced the student to remove the artwork.

On the website of the transmediale class I couldn't find anything which is documenting this "love and hate" event, no picture no text about. Was this censored out? Dear reader by now you should get the idea, that it is the same strategy as the III Reich did with critical artwork and artist - "entartete Kunst" -, to shut it down, hide it and put artists " away". Maybe Leo Moringer is just into, making simple provocation, maybe he is right wing, maybe his motives are just pointless jokes, what so ever. As the art piece "love and hate" found the way in to public sphere, the decision to 1. cover it in black than 2. to remove it is a mistake and is exactly that one which is the base for generating the Eurowide slip into conservatism, plus it generates fear of punishment in all which try to be critical in there work.

The wider background: Austria was deeply engaged in the III Reich upcoming, supplied the leader and was participating on multiple layers in the whole system. Former III Reich party-members have been sitting for long time in the Austrian parliament, mainly for the notorious FPOe. Approaching the question of guilt and responsibility of Austria in the III Reich is almost impossible and a very sensitive undertaking.

For the one who does not know, Adolf Hitler's attempt to become an artist student in Vienna at the Academy of visual arts failed, he was refused, later he became the Fuehrer. Many say, that's the reason why there is so much suttle fear in the society from artists.

In the past years, Austrian society produced politicians like Joerg Haider and now his soul-mate HCStrache which surfed on a right wing sympathetic populist wave. The social democrats, the green and the rest of the left wing in the country, unknowingly featured, promoted and provoked, with there unprofessional behaviour the upcoming of the conservative, right-wing movement. It needed conservative party leader Wolfgang Schuessel to split the party in two parts, sent Haider back as a start-up to Carinthia and keep Strache as a survival kit in Vienna.

So far so good. But now in 2009 the same polit theatre, which raised the right wing movement in the past, is reiterating with same blunt activities the HCStrache party of today.

The above example to censor out students work, from a government funded institution shows, that bureaucrats are using the same covertly methods like the National Social Democrats did, in the III Reich. The state of mind in education is Eurowide nothing to be proud off and that an art institution is behaving like a Bank, politically correct not to loose any costumers is a shame and a sign that the art education system, as it is now, is outdated. Educating political correct, non critical, designers and cowards, creates conservatism and speechless dullness all around the place.

Geiseldrama and Transmedialekunst.
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