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9/3/2000

Ordre du Jour: artists for an open Austria

Espace Ernst Hilger, Paris

Ever since the day of the Austrian parliamentary elections in October of last year, we - Austrians and foreigners living in Austria, citizens of Europe and citizens of other continents - have come to realize with growing concern that Austria - this small country which joined the European Union as late as 1996 - can have a direct impact on the political, cultural and moral situation throughout Europe. As the days passed by, it became increasingly clear that the political opinion in all parts of Europe was being affected and that it was even shocked by what seemed to be local disputes of domestic politics and internal party negotiations and last, but not least, by the unfortunate agreement between the Austrian People's Party (center to right-wing) and the Austrian Freedom Party (right-wing populist). There certainly were some over-reactions, yet, the excited reactions, the atmosphere of panic are - regrettably - quite understandable. A political taboo of post-war Europe was shattered. This is a great shock, ractions are excited, opinions have become highly emotional, citizens in Europe - irrespective of their personal views - are disconcerted.

However, the right-wing coalition, which had been dreaded with great concern, did not only lead to an uproar throughout Europe but also triggered a process of self-analysis - which may be quite useful and, to a certain extent, even necessary - among those people who acknowledge the values of democracy and solidarity, who support close cooperation and integration throughout Europe, who are liberal and open-minded. Many efforts will have to be made, much work and honest self-reflection will be needed for a critical analysis of why and how all this could happen in Austria. There is certainly one thing that, unfortunately, can already be stated today, namely that - to this day - we have not engaged in any thorough, well-argued, critical discussion of the historical, sociological and ideological aspects of the phenomenon of right-wing populism in Austria. Perhaps this is so because the politicians of the other parties were less interested in an analysis and more interested in cashing in - on a short-term (and, of course, self-deceiving) basis - on the political and moral crisis.

Of course, a hysterical, emotional boycott policy is no alternative either to this failure to engage in an analytical debate, although it is understandable that artists and intellectuals, as well as people committed to cultural projects will always be the ones to react with maximum sensitivity to specific ideological or political situations. In spite of the undeniably negative development, we cannot accept the proposal to consistently ignore official representatives of Austria, to radically boycott Austrian institutions, to discontinue any form of cooperation with Austria's cultural institutions, and to leave the country. There is no need to refer to the absurdity of the idea that several thousands of artists and intellectuals could suddenly emigrate. In fact, such a step would pave the way for a complete take-over of the cultural field by those who oppose cultural activities - the populist, conservative forces. Acting in this way would also mean to punish many people, artists and writers, actors and musicia s, liberally-minded students and professors with a sense of responsibility for this country, who themselves are all against the political developments and who themselves sense these fears and anxieties and actually express their opinion.

A total boycott of Austria has more negative than positive repercussions. It increases the isolation of the country, it makes work even more difficult for all people of a democratic, liberal and tolerant mind, especially artists and intellectuals working on cultural projects, since they are no longer able to move in their normal and - of course - international environment and to refer to their customary international contacts. In fact, they are the ones who are divested of their gear, although the supporters of the boycott wish to help them primarily. As the isolation increases, anti-European sentiments will be kindled which, in turn, provide populists with yet another argument to demonstrate that all of Austria has become the victim of a European conspiration. This emotional manipulation prevents that many questions are raised, especially those that relate to the reasons behind the isolation and the role of the political parties. A boycott supports the xenophobic forces in their rabble-rousing and readily supplies them with arguments for certain emotional, anti-European manipulations.

The number of people with a critical mind is generally known to be large. They need the support of the international community and not a global and simplified condemnation of the country as a whole, applying but one yardstick to everyone. Nor should one equate "the Austrian population" with the currently existing government since - after all - the Freedom Party got only 27% of the votes, and since other democratic parties can also be found on the political stage. It also does not necessarily follow that all those Austrian citizens who gave their vote to the Freedom Party actually agree with the main ideological thoughts of this party. We know quite well that there were many votes of protest, since many Austrian citizens were simply dissatisfied with the work of the government, with the bureaucratic system that had been established in the course of decades. We think that one of the main problems lies in the fact that in recent years - just like on previous occasions, such as for example followin World War II - there was no serious discussion, no critical debate, no in-depth intellectual and moral analysis and evaluation of the party program of the Austrian Freedom Party. There were only few politicians in the democratic camp who provided the intellectual input and had the courage to criticize the suggestions of the Freedom Party in a provocative manner (and not from a defensive perspective), with a self-assured approach and not only concerned with the realities of power politics.

The short-term fear to lose votes was stronger than the long-term strategic - and ultimately ethical - consideration to put into words the fundamental criticism of the Freedom Party's ideology. Perhaps the credibility and logical consistency of the Freedom Party would have been questioned much earlier and more seriously if - for many years - people had not been afraid to engage in a systematic and critical analysis of the "platform" of the Freedom Party, if there had been a confident and well-argued disclosure of the contradictions in its statements, and if the many diverging roles that the head of the Freedom Party has played had been observed impartially and analyzed sharply. The entire Austrian population cannot be held responsible for these omissions and the dangerous lull, in which many politicians of the democratic camp and its different political parties have persisted. Nor do the critically-minded people, who are concerned about the current situation in a political, moral and human sense, deserve to be left alone now and be condemned in the name of "collective responsibility" - a term which has bad, historical connotations.

Especially in the present difficult situation, life and work in Austria should go on, with consistency, determinaion and unaffected by xenophobic slogans. Artists and all those people working on cultural projects in Austria need the presence of their international counterparts. They need their support in order to demonstrate in all cultural institutions the viewpoints of democratic, tolerant and liberal minds. International cooperation proves that the creative forces in this country are determined to continue to express their ideas - through their cultural and artistic work - regarding intellectual and political solidarity, as well as democratic, tolerant responsibility for a future all-European society.

There are many artists and scientists, writers and actors who advocate engaging in responsible activities, and who reject the boycott policy as an ineffective method. I feel that the position of Ion Hollender, Director of the Vienna State Opera, is most appropriate, who says - using concise and unbiassed language to express his intelligent and ethical opinion - that the cultural institutions ought be considered as the platform for intellectual and moral resistance against populism, that culture is the arena for self-assured, democratic intellectuals who have an ethical mind and are aware of their responsibility. They can manifest their resistance through their work, through their fight for artistic freedom. When he explicitly stated that he will certainly not go back to Rumania but continue his work under the new and difficult circumstances, he precisely defined the strategy that I also advocate: You cannot simply abandon all cultural institutions, you cannot simply leave the cultural arena, but you must try to continue to defend democratic, open, responsible, humanistic and progressive positions through your individual work and contribution and, by doing so, prevent that dangerous, non-discriminating, simplified and populistic thoughts can gain ground.

In an open letter in the Austrian daily newspaper "Der Standard", Professor Wolf Singer expressed his view on the required resistance: " (...) it is particularly in Austria (...) that a wonderful, very vibrant and avantgardistic cultural movement has always sprung up - time and again and with great vitality. (...) As long as Austria has this vibrant and uncompromising cultural movement, nothing can go wrong. Now - more than ever before - its members must manifest their self-consciousness. They must react now quite deliberately and involve their friends abroad. Let me assure you that we will be grateful for every occasion to do so."

We, the initiators of this exhibition, are just as grateful to every artist who cooperates with us - artists from Austria - and, by doing so, manifests his/her democratic, open and tolerant attitude. Let us continue to work together, and let us believe that, in the long run, it is more meaningful to engage in an intellectual analysis and an unbiassed, critical approach to this complex reality, as well as to continue international cooperation on this basis, than to persist in an emotionally charged atmosphere of panic. It is in this spirit that we would like to thank all artists who appear together with their Austrian colleagues - in this exhibition and in many future exhibitions.

Galerie Ernst Hilger Paris at 4 rue de roi du sicile

The final list of participating artists will be available on www.kunstnet.at/orde-du-jour from monday the 6th 19.00 middle European time.

Press conference at 16 00 same adress
Espace Hilger Paris
Galerie Ernst Hilger Vienna

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