WAR SAW

POLIN MUSEUM, WARSCHAU

Warsaw. Dec. 7th 2015 - 4 o´clock. The Viennese performance artist donhofer. stands inside a huge golden cage in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.
The austrian newcomer band „She and the Junkies“, also inside the cage, plays their song „Arrival/Departure“ during donhofer. is cutting himself out of the cage.

For his actual performance, donhofer. went, together with She and the Junkies, to Warsaw. donhofer., who´s famous for his society critical works, has chosen a very important place of history for this special performance: The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. In 1943, in the middle of Polands capital, around 500.000 jewish people were killed and deported to the extermination camp Treblinka by german National Socialists. At the end of April 1943 a legendary revolt took place in the Ghetto of Warsaw, where jewish people who were still alive struggled for their lifes. After the war a monument was built to remember about the Ghetto Heroes.

Nearly three decades later, on Dec. 7th 1970, again a heroic tale was written at this place, when german chancellor, Willy Brandt, went down to his knees, in front of the Monument - an iconic gesture to ask for forgiveness in the name of germany.

Inspired through Brandts genuflection, donhofer. makes, exactly 45 years later, a statement against fascism and rightist thinking at a point in history, where mistakes of the past are buried in oblivion again: „In a time, where fences are in vogue again, in a time where people are put in camps again and where war rhetoric is going to be a daily occurrence again, we say: No! We don´t want this!“

donhofer. does, what no one wants to do - pushed through the rocking sound of „She an the Junkies“, he takes the saw and cuts himself out of his comfort zone. The golden cage of the western world has become huge: driven by the capitalism and financially strapped, people are searching again for scapegoats.

Viennese performance artist donhofer. shows in his performance „WAR SAW“ how simple it can be to break out of this system and asks: „What are you afraid of?“ Where are the heroes of today? And when are we standing up for what we are believing in?

donhofer.