Austrian artist under fire after posting star of David made of syringes
Two cities removed from public displays statues by Manfred Kielnhofer following the image’s appearance on his Facebook page.
(JTA) — Two Austrian cities are removing statues created by a prominent artist after the artist shared a picture of the Israeli flag with the star of David made up of syringes, the latest in a series of protests against pandemic rules to feature antisemitic tropes.
Manfred Kielnhofer is a sculptor whose “Guardian of Time” series features priest-link masculine figures draped in linen. One of those figures was included in the image that Kielnhofer posted on Facebook, which was surrounded by words including “Jewish.”
The posting comes as Austria is on the verge of becoming the first country to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for all adults, a move that is drawing protest from critics of the country’s pandemic rules.
Kielnhofer told BezirksRundSchau, a local newspaper, that he “overshot the mark” with the image, but nonetheless defended it as part of his proclivity to creating “critical things.” He said the text had been added by someone else who had hacked his computer but the criticism of Jews was intentional.
Vaccine manufacturers “are often Jewish. I read that somewhere. Look who the bosses of the pharmaceutical industry are,” Kielnhofer told the newspaper. (The CEO of Pfizer, which produced one widely used vaccine, is Jewish.)
In response to the posting, the city of Steyr is putting a sculpture from the “Guardian of Time” series into storage. And the mayor of Linz, Klaus Luger, said that his city government is ending an agreement to display a “Guardian of Time” statue on a central street, Der Standard reported.
“I’m speechless and shocked by the insidious tastelessness of this conspiracy theory,” Alfred Weidinger, the director of the cultural department of the state of Upper Austria, of which Linz is the capital city, told the APA news agency.
“The mindset of the creator of this illustration represents a threat to all democratic, humane and solidarity values in our country,” Weidinger said. “Even artistic freedom has its limits.”
—
The post Austrian artist under fire after posting star of David made of syringes appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
