Pre-Site Visit Reflection
Opened in 2023, ARCUS, or Shadow of a Rainbow is the result of a long process of competitions and failed memorials to commemorate the persecution of Homosexuals under Paragraph 129b during the Nazi occupation of Austria. The open call for memorial submissions began in 2021 and was won by artist Sarah Ortmeyer and editor Karl Kolbitz. ARCUS forms an imaginary shadow of a rainbow in grayscale, which seeks to create an ambiguous image of grief and hope. I have mixed feelings about this monument, while I understand the reasoning for making the monument a rainbow connecting to the queer community, the rainbow was not a well-known symbol of the LGBTQ+ community until the 1970s. While the persecution of homosexuality under Paragraph 129b continued until 1971, this monument only commemorates the victimization during the Nazi period. Placing these modern symbols and identities onto the past can be extremely problematic because these individuals may or may not have placed themselves into these categories. While I agree that it is long overdue to commemorate Homosexual victims of the Holocaust, this monument, at least for me, misses the mark.
Previously, in 2019, the City of Vienna as they hosted World Pride, announced a competition to create a Memorial to the Men and Women Victimized by the Persecution of Homosexuals in the Nazi Era. This competition was an invite-only artist completion beginning in February 2020 and was won by artist Marc Quinn in June of the same year. His design, which depicted two pairs of hands interwoven, is chopped off at the wrist to show the violence in a moment of intimacy. The hands, which were going to be two male and two female, were going to be cast by members of Vienna’s queer community to create a connection between those persecuted and the continued presence of queer life today. However, in July 2021, Quinn withdrew his design, citing global challenges and an inability to know when he would be able to see the memorial actualized. I think that this monument would have been a much better option than ARCUS because it shows both the intimacy and love of queer relationships, while not oversexualizing Homosexual relationships, and demonstrating the violence that these victims experienced. It also does a good job of memorializing both Male and Female victims who were both persecuted under Paragraph 129b in Austria.
Post-SIte Visit Reflection (7 June 2024)
Reflecting on the visit to this site, I am struck with the question of who this memorial is for. What community is it connected to? You would think that it would be the historic LGBTQ+ community. Still, unlike the monument to the Homosexuals Persecuted Under National Socialism in Berlin, Resselpark is not a significant location in the queer community of the period and does not connect to any significant event or place in the queer history of Vienna. The memorial also does not stand with or in conversation with other Holocaust memorials like the one in Berlin, so it is not part of the larger Holocaust narrative. Also, due to its late creation in 2023, it is not for the survivors of the Nazi Era as they have all likely passed on at this point. I also struggle to believe that it is for the Queer community today as it seems more like (this iteration of the memorial at least) an imposition by the City of Vienna rather than a community-led initiative. Is the creation of this memorial an initiative by the City of Vienna to ward off negative critique because of their lack of memorials (not only for Homosexual victims but also for other victim groups) or is it a legitimate instance of memorializing a past the city is ashamed of? I don’t have these answers. Because the young activists we talked to in Vienna did not have any idea about its creation or any thoughts other than knowing it exists, I am leaning toward the former.
Despite not having high hopes for this memorial, I was still quite disappointed by its existence and couldn’t shake the feeling that it seemed like a half-thought-out idea. I do not want to criticize the artists who probably had genuine intentions for submitting this design nor do I send them any hate, the problems with this memorial and the long path to its creation are not their fault. Still, it certainly feels like someone just picked the most stereotypical image of LGBTQ+ people today and then made it gray to try to signify loss. (Apparently, having a colourful memorial to show resilience would be inappropriate?) This feels incredibly lazy and as previously mentioned in my pre-site post, the rainbow only became a sign of queer people in the 1970s, so none of these victims would have identified or even recognized the logo. While I am grateful that there is a monument commemorating queer victims, I do not think that we can simply be happy with the fact that there is a memorial without critiquing it. I will not just be satisfied with the fact that a memorial exists, nor will I accept the criticism that I should be happy and move on. I do not think that this memorial does a good job of commemorating the victim group, and while I hesitate to say that it should be replaced as who knows how long that would take, I will not simply praise it simply because it exists. Queer people deserve much more than the bare minimum, while I am aware that the City of Vienna is not in the position to do much in the way of progressive memory-making when the Nazi Period is discussed, I cannot simply accept this. The one good thing I will say about the memorial is that it does not fall into the trap of showing queer people only in an oversexualized light. Unlike the equivalent memorial in Berlin, which has two men or two women kissing, this memorial does not rely on any form of sexualized content in its messaging. Other than this, I have nothing good to say about this memorial.
Citations:
ARCUS: https://www.koer.or.at/en/projects/arcus-schatten-eines-regenbogens/
https://www.koer.or.at/en/projects/memorial-to-the-men-and-women-victimized-by-the-persecution-of-homosexuals-in-the-nazi-era/