In The Horses Are Coming, Christina Werner focuses on animal symbolism as a main visual and staging strategy of National Socialism: Eagles, lions, horses and sheepdogs functioned in the Third Reich as symbols of strength, purity and order – codes that are still effective today: When Viktor Orbán presents Austria with two horses as a “sign of friendship” in 2022 or Herbert Kickl calls for the launch of a mounted police force, it becomes clear how animal motifs continue to be used as strategic symbols in right-wing and authoritarian narratives.

The work uses the technique of collage to visualise ideological codes by fragmenting and rearranging historical image sources. It is thus in the tradition of political art, such as the photomontages of John Heartfield, who worked visually against the rise of fascism in the 1930s.

Nike Bekemeier, Curatorial Assistence, Westlicht Vienna

Christina Wener

Born in 1976 in Baar (Switzerland), grew up in Baden near Vienna (Austria) and lives and works in Vienna (Austria)

In her artistic practice, she analyzes political visual strategies, mechanisms of visual power, and their dissemination through the media. She focuses on global developments such as the rise of neo-fascism and the role of public space as a place of commemoration. The archive is becoming increasingly important as a source of knowledge and starting point for many of her works.

From 2007 to 2013, she studied photography and moving image with Tina Bara and media art with Alba D’Urbano at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (Germany).

Works have been exhibited at venues including the Deichtorhallen – House of Photography, Hamburg (D); Lentos Museum, Linz (A); Mattatoio, Rome (I); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (D); National Gallery, Prague (CZ); Fotogalerie Wien (A); the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (USA); the Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (A); the Galerie Photon-Center for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana (SI); and the Bauhaus Museum Dessau (D).

Her works are included in the following collections: the Austrian Federal Collection, the Vienna Museum, the Collection of the State of Lower Austria, the Lentos Museum Linz, and the Vienna Chamber of Labor.

www.christinawerner.com
Instagram: werner.christina

This exhibition was made possible with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade.