MONUMENT TO THE VICTIMS OF WITCH-HUNTS (WORK IN PROGRESS)
In Bad St. Leonhard in Lavanttal, where the court sentenced three women for witchcraft in 1493, a monument will be erected to commemorate those three women and all the victims of the witch hunts.
The starting point for the design is a passage from the 1493 “Urgicht” (an interrogation protocol that was probably drawn up under torture): ‘da sind sie überains worden’. The phrase refers to a union – agreeing or uniting – but can also be interpreted as ‘becoming more than one’: an alliance, a collective coming together. The text passage that was originally directed against the three women (accusation of the devil’s alliance) is reinterpreted – the focus is directed towards the common and collective as something powerful.
The lettering will be visible south of Bad St. Leonhard in Lavanttal – on a hill close to the location of a historical execution site: In the form of large letters, it will be ‘written’ into a sloping pasture by cutting out the area of the letters when mowing. The lettering is visible when walking or driving past and its shape is reminiscent of advertising lettering on slopes along motorways. Leaving an unmown strip of grass refers to the field margin. A field margin is a border strip overgrown with meadow, hedges or trees between two fields, on embankments or along property boundaries. The German word ‘Hexe’ (witch) is derived from “Hecke” (German for “hedge”) or Hagzissa (Old High German: fence rider). The hedge is associated with enclosure / privatisation. Based on these references, the hedge and the related field margin lend themselves to forming a monument to the victims of witch persecution
The text passage will be supplemented by a memorial plaque, which will be located close to a cycle/hiking path near the river Lavant. A commemorative event on site and the involvement of associations and choirs is planned.
The visualisations on the right show the first draft of the monument, which was initially thought to be made of big letters, formed by the material hedge.
I received the scholarship of the province of Carinthia for interdisciplinary art forms 2023 (Jahresstipendium für spartenübergreifende Kunstformen 2023 des Landes Kärnten/Koroška) to realise a memorial for those who were persecuted during the witch hunts.
The idea to realize a monument was initiated by Container25 collective in the course of the project „Nullpunkte der Gewalt im Lavanttal 1493/1934“ (Zero Points of Violence in the Lavant Valley), which focusses on different times of violence in Wolfsberg’s history (a region in Carinthia). It included talks, city walks, film screenings, concerts and a publication.
A starting point for the project was, when in the course of research and visits to archives, the collective came across a very early witch trial against three women in 1493. The original „Urgicht“, a protocol of interrogation resulting from torture, can be viewed in the provincial archives.
I was invited by the collective to design a monument, remembering the three women who were sentenced in 1493 and all those persecuted during the witch hunts.
After a long break due to Post Covid, I am now continuing to work on the project.
