Opposing Power
26 February 2022 15 January 2023
The art collection of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance
Special exhibition in the House of History (26.2.2022 – 15.1.2023)
February, 26th 2022 – January, 15th 2023
The art collection of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance in Vienna comprises around 200 prints, drawings, and oil paintings. This exhibition marks the first comprehensive presentation of those works. The story they tell is one of resistance, war and persecution between 1934 and 1945.
The exhibition is divided into two parts, one chronological and the other thematic. Artworks in the first part trace the various ways in which opposition to fascism and National Socialism was expressed: from the Spanish Civil War – which many Austrians actively participated in – to military resistance towards the end of the Second World War. Some speak to life and death in the camps.
The second part of the exhibition shows how individual survivors tried to process their memories of war, flight, persecution, and resistance in artworks made after 1945, often grappling with these experiences for the rest of their lives.
Curators: Christoph H. Benedikter, Christian Rapp, Ursula Schwarz
Academic team: Andrea Thuile, Benedikt Vogl, Heidrun Wenzel
Sujet: Carry Hauser, Ohne Titel, 1969, DÖW, Foto: C. Fuchs, © Bildrecht Wien, 2022