Thomas Hörl
Ahnengalerie (2024)
Commissioned work
Courtesy of the artist; © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Dates
20.9.2024–16.2.2025
Details
Installation with seven collages, UV print on aluminum composite panel, photo wallpaper, ca. 450 × 1000 cm
Location
Neue Galerie Graz, Graz
Part of
Horror Patriae: Exhibition
Production specifics
Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ’24
In his new installation, Thomas Hörl created a portrait gallery of Perchten—mythical figures of Alpine folklore—turning the Joanneum’s vestibule into a theater of superstition. Like many Austrian artists, Hörl grew up with these masked, costumed characters. His attitude toward them is ambivalent and playful: they represent sources of fear—imposed on children by parents and other figures of authority—but at the same time they act as role models for gender fluidity and liberation from oppressive church norms.
Hörl’s protagonist is Frau Perchta, usually depicted as a scary old woman who appears in midwinter to check if children have behaved well. If not, she (in some versions) slits their bellies and fills them with straw. Frau Perchta’s flamboyant entourage of Perchten have no clear gender and can be either good and beautiful (Schönperchten) or evil and ugly (Schiechperchten).
It is worth noting that in the Third Reich, this carnivalesque pagan tradition was strongly promoted by Nazi folklorists as an expression of Germanness.
Needlework: Thomas Hörl, Peter Kozek
Wallpaper photos: Victor Jaschke
Wallpaper design: Johannes Lang
Assistance: Luis Prath
Printing: Cyberlab Wien
Retrospective
Retrospective