Art in the Elevator: Julius Deutschbauer / Gerhard Spring. Sound of Migration

Julius Deutschbauer (1961 Klagenfurt, AT – Vienna, AT) und Gerhard Spring (1962 Scheibbs, AT – Vienna, AT) use a random generator to confront visitors to the Salzburg Festival, other tourists, and also locals with the type of questions that are typically posed to people of refugee or immigrant background. In this way, the interviewees were gently brought into the role of refugees and displaced people. Originally conducted as an art intervention in the public realm, an “interview machine” was used to select the questions. Posed in English, they addressed migration routes, reasons for fleeing or leaving the home country, or transcultural challenges, and went something like this: “How was your journey? Did you have enough drinking water, food, and fuel on board during your flight? Are you searched for in your home country? What would have been expecting you at home if you had turned around? Did you do a professional training in your home country? What does a typical human trafficker/refugee look like?” So what happens to us when we put ourselves in the position of a refugee? This is once again a big issue, given the armed conflicts of today.

Between 2000 and 2007, Deutschbauer/Spring worked together as an artist duo, describing themselves as “obliging commission and session artists,” and still performing jointly planned projects until 2008. They were best known for their poster projects, performances, and installations, in which the artists articulated critical statements on current political and social affairs. Central to their oeuvre are the more than one hundred posters humorously documenting various cultural-political reflections, which the artists generously distributed and placarded as “material for everyone.”

About Art in the Elevator
With kind support from the Salzburg AG, the monitors of the three MönchsbergAufzug cabins are used as an extended exhibition space. Video and film work by both internationally renowned and emerging artists are presented for three months at a time. Thematically, the program is informed by the current exhibitions, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the museum’s own media collection and the opportunity to become acquainted with contemporary artistic positions from Salzburg.