David Kranzelbinder
Grenzland (Borderland, 2024)
Courtesy of the artist
In his photo series, David Kranzelbinder explores the symbolic politics of Styria as Austria’s southeastern border zone. The frontier is inscribed into the name Steiermark, the suffix -mark indicating a medieval buffer zone between realms. Since the collapse of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, southern Styria has featured a border to Yugoslavia and now Slovenia. Mostly a green, unmarked boundary, it has more recently been cut up by fences to keep out migrants and refugees.
In earlier times, the predominantly Slovenian-speaking area had been contested terrain, claimed by Pan-Germans who made efforts to displace the Slavic language—undeterred by World War II—and founded so-called Grenzlandschulen (borderland schools).
Anti-liberal, nationalist statements prevail in the region’s landmarks. They include an unlikely 1921 statue of Otto von Bismarck outside Mureck, meant to mark the region’s larger allegiance to Germany. In Upper Styria, the twenty-six-meter tall Annaberg monument from 1917 still commemorates the “great time” of the authoritarian monarchy.
David Kranzelbinder (1982, Graz) is a photographer, filmmaker, and curator. He grew up in the Austrian border region with Slovenia. After studying German, philosophy, and history at the University of Graz, he worked for several years as a project assistant at the Literaturhaus Graz. In his cultural work, he focuses, among others, on borders and the history of the Slovenian population in Austria. Kranzelbinder has been the artistic director of the Pavelhaus in Laafeld (Bad Radkersburg) since 2017. He lives in Graz, Slovenia, and southern Styria.
Photographs
Education event
20.11., 17:00
Expert talks
“Grenzland” Borderlines
With David Kranzelbinder
