The game of antagonisms appeals greatly to Italian artist Antonio Riello. He challenges his chosen themes by using conscious discrepancies between material and subject, form and content. For the exhibition ?Flaktürme down? at the project space, Riello has constructed scale models (1-20) of four of Vienna?s six World War II flak towers ? those of the Augarten and Arenberg Park ? from 1,000 kilos of sugar cubes. Visitors to the exhibition are given carte blanche to demolish this sweet variant on fascist war achitecture and take chunks home as mementos, at the end of the exhibition. Two generations after National Socialism, these monumental utilitarian structures remain fixtures of Vienna?s peace-time urban landscape, but by dismantling their sugary guise piece by piece, they will be reduced to the pitiful fate of mere souvenirs.
Antonio Riello born 1958 lives and works in Maróstica (Italy) and Amsterdam.
Curator: Gerald Matt