Soviet Unterzoegersdorf

rdf:langString Soviet Unterzoegersdorf

rdf:langString Soviet Unterzoegersdorf

rdf:langString Soviet Unterzoegersdorf

rdf:langString Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (German: Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf) is a fictitious country created by the art/technology/theory group monochrom. It is the "last existing appanage republic of the USSR", located inside the Republic of Austria. Unterzögersdorf is partially based on an existing village well known to Johannes Grenzfurthner, the creator of the concept. As a kid and teenager, Grenzfurthner spent a lot of time at his grandparents' farm in the small village of Unterzögersdorf (a cadastral municipality of Stockerau). His grandparents' stories about the Nazism, WWII and the Soviet occupation in allied-occupied Austria (1945–1955) form the inspirational basis of the long-term project Soviet Unterzoegersdorf. In the early 2000s, notorious Austrian art group monochrom decided to have a little fun with the spirit of Ostalgie (nostalgia for the Soviet era), the cultural whiplash from the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union a decade earlier. monochrom founder Johannes Grenzfurthner, having been born well after the USSR ceded East Austria in 1955, realized he knew nothing about the Soviet occupation of his hometown, the tiny rural hamlet of Unterzoegersdorf, aside from the hyperbolic, implausibly demonic stories his grandmother had told him when he was young. He was curious about that era, but the older generation was unwilling to talk. (Considering the shame of Anschluss followed by ten years of Soviet annexation, could anyone blame them? As Grenzfurthner himself put it, "We Austrians are known for two things: Classical music and mass murder.") Leave the past behind, they said. No one wants to remember Soviet Unterzoegersdorf. Debates triggered by postmodern culture have directed monochrom's attention towards questions of representation and relevance of "history" and stories. With Soviet Unterzoegersdorf a fictitious and misplaced handling of the past and the present is being discussed and put to use. In this regard, the project is also taking part in the production as well as the criticism of cultural and collective memories. Monochrom transformed the basic theoretical concept into various projects (LARPs, computer games, short films, performances).