Afterwards: “The views of Mr. Manfred Deix” – on February 12th from 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – Peter Schneeberger presents “kulturMontag” on February 12, 2024 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2, which will, among other things, deal with the new exhibition “PROTEST/ARCHITEKTURE” in the Vienna MAK and the sustainability of protests. The show is also dedicated to the art of swearing. Linguist and swear researcher Oksana Havryliv from the University of Vienna will be a live guest in the studio. “kulturMontag” also reports on the Vorarlberg action artist Wolfgang Flatz, who is considered a provocateur thanks to his drastic performances. The documentary “The Views of Mr. Manfred Deix” (11:15 p.m.) will then be on the program to mark the 75th birthday of the artist, who died in 2016.
Demos, barricades, superglue – what do protests achieve?
Hundreds of thousands are taking to the streets in Germany and Austria – for democracy and tolerance and against fascism and racism. The trigger for this was research by the investigative network “Correctiv” at the beginning of the year, which reported on a meeting of AfD politicians, members of the so-called Union of Values, neo-Nazis and entrepreneurs under the title “Secret plan against Germany”. With Austrian participation, plans to expel millions of people of foreign origin from Germany were discussed under the slogan “remigration”. Those who protest use their bodies to make their voices heard. Visitors to the new exhibition “PROTEST/ARCHITECTURE” in the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) can have this physical experience themselves. It shows a wide spectrum of protests, ranging from the political struggle for survival of a democracy to social happenings for more nature conservation. And that ranges from peaceful to warlike. The arc stretches from the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris to the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. “kulturMontag” asks the former “Fridays 4 Future” climate activist and founder of the project how sustainable protests are and what they can achieve Institute for Climate Issues Katharina Rogenhofer and the German author Friedemann Karig.
The art of swearing
When the Islamist-motivated terrorist attack occurred in Vienna in November 2020, a neighbor reacted with anger and contempt. His “Schleich di, du Oaschloch” was immortalized on an amateur video and was later named the Austrian saying of the year. The fact that not only fine art is upheld in Vienna, but also deep sayings, vulgar and obscene things, has been known in this country at least since Ernst Hinterberger’s cult character “Mundl” from the TV series “A real Viennese does not go down” or Peter Handke’s legendary ” Audience insults.” But it’s not just in Austria that people gossip and scold, swearing is a worldwide linguistic phenomenon. While fecal-anal expressions dominate here, insults to relatives are common in the Middle East and blasphemous language prevails in pious countries such as Italy or Poland. Linguist and swear researcher Oksana Havryliv from the University of Vienna knows that swearing is not shameful. Her specialty is maledictology, the science of swearing. The Ukrainian-born German scholar has been studying swear words for 30 years now and has published her research results seriously but humorously in the book “Only a moron wouldn’t buy this book”. In a conversation with Peter Schneeberger, Oksana Havryliv reveals live in the studio why swearing is good for you and why the language in her homeland, including its swear words, has changed in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine.
Consistent provocateur – Wolfgang Flatz in the Pinakothek der Moderne
He allowed himself to be slapped in the face for minutes, walked on as a carpet, pelted with darts while naked, or banged back and forth between two metal plates as a living bell clapper in the blissful waltz rhythm. The Vorarlberg performance artist Wolfgang Flatz knows how to provoke until blood flows. He has made physical aggression, perpetration, voyeurism and compassion the central perception strategies of his artistic practice, always based on his own body. With these and other actions he has always tried to explore physical and psychological limits. The beginning of a series of performances and interventions that Flatz calls “dismantling” landed him, among other things, in prison and being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. “My art is me,” says the now 71-year-old, who is often dubbed by the media as a taboo breaker, provocateur and extremist. The Dornbirn native has little idea what to do with these attributions. All of his works are based on his own human experiences. Since a life-threatening accident twelve years ago, he has become “more humble,” as the former enfant terrible now says. In addition to his large-scale retrospective in the Munich Pinakothek der Moderne, Flatz carried out another drastic action. On February 8th, he auctioned off his so-called “Physical Sculptures,” the tattoos on his own body.
“The views of Mr. Manfred Deix” (11:15 p.m.)
He was probably Austria’s most important satirical chronicler – the cartoonist Manfred Deix would have celebrated his 75th birthday on February 22nd. He was never afraid to hold up a bitterly evil mirror to people and fought with a sharp brush against the grievances in society until his death. The aim of his criticism was philistinism and stupidity, racism, populism and the power of the church. The film portrait by Sylwia Rotter shows how much personal there is behind his drawings, in which Deix and his companions Bernhard Paul, Gottfried Helnwein and also his great love Marietta Deix have their say.