A new museum was opened in Erlauf in 2015 to commemorate the end of the Second World War 70 years ago: ERLAUF ERINNERT - Museum der Friedensgemeinde Erlauf combines contemporary history, a culture of remembrance and contemporary art. This unique museum deals with the history of National Socialism and war in Austria and is the first to show the development of a culture of remembrance in conjunction with artistic positions.
A highly symbolic handshake turned Erlauf in the Lower Austrian district of Melk into a historically special place overnight. On May 8, 1945, Soviet General Dmitri Dritshkin met US General Stanley Reinhart there. The Second World War in Europe was over. The generals' handshake at midnight triggered a special form of commemoration and remembrance culture in Erlauf, which has been practiced there since the 1960s. No other place of comparable size in the German-speaking world has dealt with the themes of peace, remembrance and art so consciously and over such a long period of time. In 1995, the peace memorials by Jenny Holzer and Oleg Komov were realized and subsequently a series of temporary art projects in public spaces such as "Erlauf remembers" (2000, 2002) or the music project "AMF - Allied Musical Forces" by Konrad Rennert (2006).
Peace Monument Erlauf by Jenny Holzer © Christian Wachter and Peace Monument by Oleg Komov, 1995 © Remigio Gazzari
With ERLAUF ERINNERT. Museum of the Peace Community of Erlauf, a lively place for a comprehensive examination of contemporary history, the culture of remembrance and contemporary art has been created. In a 250 square meter permanent exhibition - 70 years after the end of the war and based on the historical event of 1945 - the events in the town and region, the history of totalitarianism and expulsion as well as the ruptures and continuities of the Austrian culture of remembrance of the Second Republic are shown in conjunction with artistic works. All art and film projects realized in Erlauf can be viewed in the art archive and the film room. A special exhibition area is dedicated to temporary exhibitions, lectures, readings, film screenings and educational projects. The artistic exploration of the topic is continued in a temporary section of the exhibition, to connect history with the present.
The ERLAUF ERINNERT museum is a cooperation project between the market town of Erlauf and the Department of Art and Culture of the Province of Lower Austria.
current exhibition: Sabine Watschka: Inconspicuous architecture
A seemingly insignificant ruined building in Krummnußbaum is the starting point for Sabine Watschka's work. The ruins are the remains of a pump house from the of a pump house from the Nazi era. It was part of a planned and partially built tank farm with the possibility of transferring goods by ship and rail. This tank farm was managed by WIFO (Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft Forschungsgesellschaft GmbH), a front company of the National Socialists, which was responsible for supplying the Wehrmacht with mineral oil, among other things. In addition to the pump house, a harbour basin in a now modified form, two bridge piers, a concrete road, the remains of foundations, presumably from a material ropeway, and two barracks in Annastift have been preserved from the camp complex.
Of the two barracks, the southern one has been renovated and the cellar of the northern one probably dates from the Nazi era. The barracks in Annastift served, among other things, as accommodation for workers, forced laborers, prisoners of war and "ethnic German resettlers". An extension of Krummnußbaum station, an oil and petrol station in Wallenbach and, at times, the integration of Erlauf station were planned for the transfer of goods to the railroad.
Exhibition view, Unscheinbare Architektur, contribution to aus der Dunkelheit, University of Art and Design Linz © Sabine Watschka
The artist approached the existing building objects in different ways by adapting archaeological working methods. Thus For example, the dimensions of the imprints left by the formwork during the construction of the round part of the pump house were transferred to a photograph of the pump house in columns. pump house in columns, reflecting the pragmatic form of the building and the regime's procedures in the banal columns of figures. Countering the process of decay and thus also forgetting, the artist layers photographs, frottages, impressions, deposits and found objects to form the camp complex in her installation. The artist sees this layering as a kind of "skin" of elapsed time, which refers to the past and speaks for itself.
October 19, 2023 to May 19, 2024
www.erlauferinnert.at
www.friedensgemeinde.at
