In the course of a research stay in Russia, the historian Hermine Prügger came across facts and documents that gave her reason to initiate the project Front:Wechsel with the artist Wolfgang Rahs, who comes from Vorau, and his Russian colleague Gosha Ostretsov. The project deals with Styria's past in the Second World War on the occasion of the Year of Remembrance 2005. Among other artistic confrontations, three sculptures were created — Panzerlilie-Panzerlilie (Tank line-Tank lily) (two-part, Rahs) and Explosion (Ostretsov), which were removed from their original locations and "temporarily stored" after the project ended.
In 2007, together with the artists, appropriate installation sites were found and fixed in agreement with the Vorau Abbey management. The new locations "frame" the monastery grounds and correspond with the places and signs of Vorau Abbey, which bear witness to the past of the war.
Rahs has the metal longitudinal and transverse silhouette of a Soviet tank point to the sites of the events in the immediate vicinity, Ostretsov's Explosion locates the memory of the bombardment and destruction of the monastery, which housed the National Socialist Napola, shortly before the end of the war.
In cooperation with the Vorau Abbey.
Location: Vorau Abbey, Vorau 1, 8250 Vorau
