23.07.2001
Performance

Julius Deutschbauer / Gerhard Spring
”Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs Franz Morak open the Salzburg Festival in the Salzburg Kunstverein”

The Galerie Steinek is said to have been the scene of a memorable encounter.

According to witnesses, artist Julius Deutschbauer shook State Secretary Morak’s hand. ”How are you doing as a state secretary?“, Franz Morak reportedly asked Deutschbauer. ”Fine, and yourself, Mr. State Secretary?“, Julius Deutschbauer is said to have answered. For several months now, Julius Deutschbauer and Gerhard Spring have been staging conversations and public speaking performances for which they have assumed the roles of Franz Morak and a changing sequence of discussion partners. Deutschbauer plays the part of Franz Morak and Gerhard Spring steps in for his announced counterpart. In the most recent event, Gerhard Spring portrayed the figure of Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel for the third time. Among the most fascinating aspects of these Dada-style performances is the wealth of original quotations used and twisted to the point of absurdity by the artists.

The first six of these discussions recently appeared in a volume published by Edition Selene: MORAK u.v.a., 168 pages, with numerous illustrations, 11.5 x 19 cm, paperback, brochure format. 14.90 Euro ISBN: 3-85266-170-6