The shattered panel is a 1:1 plaster cast of the fragmentary remains of the ransacked grave plaque of Isak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal (1761-1849) from the Jewish Cemetery in Währing, Vienna’s 18th district. Hofmannsthal was the great-great-grandfather of Dr. Hans v. Karabacek, the owner of this building prior to, during, and after World War II, whose suitcase (with initials ‘Dr.H.v.K.’) is exhibited in the adjacent room. Karabacek’s maternal grandmother was Ernestine Lang, née v. Hofmannsthal, a granddaughter of Isak v. Hofmannsthal and Theresia, née Schäfteles.

My show Détache-moi!/Zimmerflucht, a meditation on the topic of fascism and fate/luck, in an existing Viennese space. Shown here are images from the picture series Détache-moi! and the stool edition Untitled (Big Die).

The Burnt Book at left belonged to the library of Schloss Grafenstein in Carinthia and, according to the owner, was misused as heating material during the occupation of the Schloss by the Soviet army at the end of World War II. Books may burn once a conflagration is already established, but, as the occupiers discovered, they are ill-suited as fuel for a fire.

At right my essay on my spouse’s grandfather Dr. Hans v. Karabacek, who was measured for Jewish features at the Natural History Museum in December 1941. Related in “Immeasurable,” in Michael Huey, Inside Stories, Album Verlag, Vienna 2021, pp. 176-195.

Two parquet floorboards from our apartment—damaged by shrapnel in the course of a bombing raid in the spring of 1945—cling together in isolation from a floor beneath that is identical to the one they once formed a part of. As a result of and during the same attack, an infant was killed in this same space: apartment 4-5, the site of the exhibition Détache-moi!/Zimmerflucht.

Photo-based work Disturbance no. 9, installation view at Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna