‘Go Away and Take Your Sh*tty Forest’: Right-Wing Politicians Have Waged a Campaign Against an Eco-Art Installation in Austria

A massive environmentally conscious
art installation in Austria is now being guarded around the
clock after being targeted by right-wing politicians.

Two hard right parties, the Alliance for the Future of Austria
(BZÖ) and the Austrian Freedom Party
(FPÖ), had publicly criticized the project, falsely claiming that
the installation, which has filled a local soccer stadium with a
grove of 300 trees, had been taxpayer-funded.

The resulting public controversy has escalated into threats. In
a recent profile with Der Standard,
Swiss curator Klaus Littmann alleged that he has not only faced
verbal criticism for the project, but also been physically attacked
on the street and pushed into oncoming traffic. According to the
curator, his assailant shouted, “Go away and take your shitty
forest!”

As the September 8 opening approached, the BZÖ rallied
supporters on social media, instructing them to gather in front of
the stadium during Littmann’s opening and make a statement with
“non-functional chainsaws.” In the end, the debut was a largely celebratory occasion, but as a
result of the furor the stadium is now being guarded day and
night.

“I had not previously experienced such reactions,” the
Swiss curator told Deutsche Welle
in an interview. “Meanwhile people have come to thank me and talk
about the project. The reactions are still bitter on social media
though, where it’s obviously easier to lash out.”

Littman’s project, called For Forest–The
Unending Attraction of Nature, has been years in the
making. Despite the careful planning, it seems that the location he
chose in the city of Klagenfurt made it a target for the central
European nation’s right-wing parties. The stadium, which can
hold 30,000 people, was constructed for the European Championships
in 2008, and is considered part of the legacy of the late
right-wing populist politician Jörg Haider.

According to Littman, part of the controversy has to do with the
fact that the area soccer team, Wolfsberger AC, entered the
Europa League and wanted to use the stadium, but couldn’t because
of the already-scheduled art installation. “Political parties
picked that up and instrumentalized the issue in their election
campaigns,” said Littman.

Mainly, however, the curator sees the uproar as political
grandstanding, with the right-wing parties spreading rumors that
the project was sucking public resources, when in fact he has
funded For Forest through private donations. “In the
middle of the project, there’s Sunday’s upcoming election,” he
explained to DW. “Representatives of these parties were
asked if they’d go see this installation and they said: No! And it
was apparently impossible to eradicate the falsehoods they kept
chanting like prayers.”

The ambitious installation is
based on a 1970/71 pencil drawing by Austrian artist and
architect Max Peintner, with Littman setting out to bring his
vision to life as a statement on present-day ecological
concerns. “With this art intervention I would like to
challenge our perception of nature and sharpen our awareness of the
future relationship between nature and humankind,” he told artnet News ahead
of the opening. “This project is also a warning. Nature, which we
now take for granted, might someday only be found in specially
assigned spaces, as is already the case with zoo
animals.”

Nevertheless, the right-wing parties chose to direct their anger
at the trees. “I directly asked the woman in charge of arts and
culture at the FPÖ what her party had against my project,” Littman
claimed to DW, “and she replied that it was simply because
they were in the opposition.”

Admission to the public art installation is free. The trees in
Wörthersee Stadium will naturally transform over the course of the
fall season, until October 27. At that time, the forest is
scheduled to be removed and replanted somewhere public.

The post ‘Go Away and Take Your Sh*tty Forest’: Right-Wing
Politicians Have Waged a Campaign Against an Eco-Art Installation
in Austria appeared first on artnet News.