MONUMENT FOR VICTIMS OF WITCHCRAFT PERSECUTION | ONE YEAR GRANT (WORK IN PROGRESS)

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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. I feel honoured and thankful and also have great respect for this responsible task.

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 city history. 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 in public space, remembering the three women who were sentenced in 1493 and all those persecuted during the witch hunts.

My design approach is research-based: I start from a sentence in the “Urgicht” that emphasises a collective moment: “da sind sie überains worden” – German for “there they have become one” / “agreed” / “found common ground”. I want to work with the material “hedge“, as the word „Hexe“ (German for witch) derives from the Old High German word „hag“ for hedge (German: Hecke). Hedges were uprooted in social protests in Britain in the 16th & 17th centuries as they were used to enclose and privatise commons (common land).

After a long break due to Post Covid, I am now continuing to work on the project, looking for a place for the monument.