Franz Kapfer
In his installations and performances, Franz Kapfer (*1971 Fürstenfeld, lives in Vienna) works with processes of writing history and their various forms of political representation. He analyses historical and political processes in terms of how they are ingrained in bodies, behaviors, historical buildings, and monuments and reflects on their influence on our contemporary society and its everyday life.
In Kapfer’s installation Im Rücken die Ruinen von Europa (At my Back, the Ruins of Europe) (2019 – 21), shields hang from rusty chains in a room that seems very bleak and eerie. They bear symbols of various far-right extremist movements and casts shadows on the walls from the light in the center. These are the long shadows of a divided Europe, which we encounter here larger-than-life and distorted. On one of the shields, we see a hand with a flame, which recalls the ancient tradition of the Olympic Games. Its light does not, however, symbolize a common matter but was rather appropriated by the Junge Nationalisten (Young Nationalists) — a youth organization of the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD; National Democratic Party of Germany). The far-right extremist Identitarian movement, which has been banned in France but is still permitted in Austria, is also found here with its lambda symbol. It is assumed that its symbol was taken from the shields of the Spartans in a film version of a comic book series (300, dir. Zack Snyder, 2006), but the lambda in fact comes from the American gay movement of the 1970s — also appropriated and decontextualized for (associations of) “real men.”
The ancient figure of the gladiator Spartacus takes on a new connotation for neofascist groups. In many European countries, men in particular, in an aggressive and irreconcilable stance, are initiating a “struggle” in the name of their fatherland. Kapfer is “calling in” their ideological foundation and reflecting on their historical continuities and fracture lines. Their symbols are part of the language of an ersatz religion that does not want to recognize the difference between reality and symbol. Their backward-looking, nationalistic, and violent rhetoric and symbolism reveals a vehement opposition to any liberality and equality that reveals to us the fragility and vulnerability of the discourses and efforts for an open Europe.
Franz Kapfer
Solo (among others): Kunst am Bau, Graz (2025), Club Hybrid, Graz (2021), museumORTH, Orth (2020), Museum Hartberg (2017), GPLcontemporary, Vienna (2016), Kunstpavillon Innsbruck (2009), Belvedere, Vienna (2008), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Wörlen, Passau (2007), Salzburger Kunstverein (2006), Galerie Hohenlohe, Vienna (2006), Bétonsalon, Paris (2005), Galerie Hohenlohe, Vienna (2004), Neue Galerie am Universalmuseum Joanneum, Studio, Graz (2002). Shows (among others): Kyiv Biennale, Vienna (2023), EVN collection, Maria Enzersdorf (2022), Neue Galerie am Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (2022), HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Graz (2021), Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (2021), Sala Omnia, Bucharest (2019), Würtembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2019), EVN collection Plovdiv (2019), Kunsthaus Graz (2018), Zeta Art Center & Gallery, Tirana (2018), Belvedere 21, Vienna (2017), Biennale Gherdëina 5, Ortisei (2016), MUSA, Vienna (2016), GFZK, Leipzig (2015), Kyiv Biennial, Kyiv (2015), Kunsthalle Mainz (2015), University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong (2015), National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Nizhny Novgoradd and Moscow (2014), Leopold Museum, Vienna (2014), Secession, Vienna (2014), Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck (2013), Ludwig Museúm, Budapest (2013), Depo, Jewish baker and Austrian Cultural Forum, Istanbul (2013), Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (2012), Busan Biennale, Busan (2012), MUAC, Mexico City (2012), Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck (2011), Museum of Contemporary Art, Cracow (2011), BWA SOKOL Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy Sącz (2011), im Rahmen von Franz West Extroversion, 54. Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2011)