Sebastian Lehner
Flakturm, Abstracted, 2019
cardboard, colorful papier-mâché
121 x 79 x 38 cm
The sculptural installation Flakturm, Abstracted (2019) concerns Austria’s National Socialist past on the basis of the Vienna flak towers (Flaktürme). It proposes a new way to approach a difficult and dark cultural heritage such as giant, irremovable objects that remind one of Austrian complicity in the horrors of WWII.
Flakturm, Abstracted (2019) is a sculpture of the Esterhazypark Leitturm…as a Piñata. Consisting of cardboard and colorful papier-mâché, this piñata is a Flakturm that can be “smashed to pieces” in a playful act.
Through Flakturm, Abstracted (2019), tension and resolution are closely combined in a form of active engagement, that represents a society struggling to come to terms with its past.
