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Die nervöse Zeit 
Reflections on Austrian Caricatures from 1930 to 1938


Exhibition

Dates
3.–16.10.2020

Details
Opening: 2.10., 18:30
Tours with the curator: 10.10., 14:00; 16.10., 18:00

Location
Graz

Series
Parallel Program 2020

Production specifics
Supported by steirischer herbst ’20

The First Republic of Austria was a state of constant uncertainty. For politicians of the period, who espoused a variety of different ideologies, democracy, human rights, and diversity of opinion were not promising concepts. In 1933, a totalitarian system seized power in Germany, and shortly thereafter autocratic rule prevailed in Austria as well. Caricatures accompanied this course of decline with biting commentary. After 1934, state censorship in Austria prohibited any public censure of Dollfuß and his cronies, but graphic criticism of the Nazis was permitted and even encouraged. Many of these cartoons are timeless—a warning to those who today long for a strong leader because they feel that democracy can no longer protect their interests. Subsequently, selected historical caricatures from the exhibition are made available to the comics collective tonto, who will analyze them with an eye to their relevance for the present and update them in drawings. This translation of the past into the present is documented by the individual artists. The results will be presented in a film at the closing event.

Curated by Emil Gruber

Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective