In a temporary installation Ruth Beckermann re-contextualizes Alfred Hrdlicka’s 1988 monument “Memorial against War and Fascism”. The installation THE MISSING IMAGE relates to the bronze figure of a bearded man lying down with a brush in his hand, depicting the Jews cleaning the streets during the pogrom after the “Anschluss” in March 1938.

Ruth Beckermann completes the scene by adding the missing images, those of laughing spectators, recently found in film archives. The Jews had to wash the symbols and slogans of the austro-fascist regime from the sidewalk using brushes and sometimes even toothbrushes.

This was the brain child of Viennese anti-Semites and imposed exclusively in Vienna and some other Austrian cities.

Sounds: Olga Neuwirth
Picture editing: Klaus Pamminger
Production management, Press: Milli Segal
Assistant: Philipp Diettrich
Technical realization: Lichttapete
Draft: Ruth Beckermann/Walter Studener
Construction company: Firma Bruckschwaiger
Graphics: Althaler + Oblasser
More Information

Source: Jewish Welcome Service Vienna
Photo Credit: The Missing Image