The artist Elisabeth Schmirl reacted to the two Nazi frescoes in the “Unicorn” at Graz University with wall prints showing life-size active citizens.
The university building at Schubertstraße 6a in Graz has already caused quite a stir. It was built in 1868/69, from 1938 it was rebuilt in the spirit of National Socialist architectural ideas and provided with Nazi frescoes. After 1945, the two frescoes were painted over and rediscovered in the course of renovation work in 1997. What to do with them? was the question. With an artistic intervention by Richard Kriesche and the then rector and contemporary historian Helmut Konrad, the two murals were transformed into a piece of commemorative culture. The building was redesigned again from 2019 to 2021, now serves as the start-up and innovation hub of the University of Graz and carries the beautiful name Unicorn. As a result, however, awareness of the frescoes increased again, and in addition to the intervention of Kriesche and Konrad, another strong counterweight was sought Uni refuge should give a voice. Elisabeth Schmirl, Professor of Graphics and Painting at the Department of Fine Arts and Design in Innsbruck, was the winner. In the form of gray wall prints, she shows a number of people who are committed and raise their voices. The light in the stairwell mixes the shadows of the people using it with the life-size figures on the wall, and each individual thus becomes a member of a critical civil society. At least everyone could think about it!
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