I Saw This
June 22–September 14, 2018
Austrian artist lays down monumental marker against child soldiers, war and terror with 4,000 m2 work, I saw this.
Gottfried Helnwein’s artistic covering of the Ringturm was officially unveiled on June 22 in Vienna, in a ceremony attended by high-profile guests from the worlds of politics, business and the arts. The 2018 covering is a 4,000 m2 work in the heart of the Austrian capital that takes a stand against violence and repression. The creator is Gottfried Helnwein, one of Austria’s most important contemporary artists on the post-WW2 international arts scene. Born in Vienna, he has reached a wide audience with his hyperrealistic images of wounded and bandaged children.
Specially commissioned for the covering of the Ringturm, Helnwein’s piece I saw this is a two-part composition and an integral part of the 100th anniversary celebrations for Austria’s First Republic. On the front of the Ringturm, a girl with her blonde hair tied back tightly is holding a machine gun with the Danube Canal in her sights. The rear of the historic building features an image of a city ablaze before the eyes of a larger-than-life manga character. The background shows people against the backdrop of a wall of flames and smoke several metres high.
30 printed netting sheets, each around 3m wide and up to 63m long, transforms Gottfried Helnwein’s images into an impassioned plea against wrongs such as war, child soldiers, repression, fear and terror. “Art robs horrors of their power. The aesthetic transcends and relativises the inescapability of terror,” says Helnwein of his motif, which references the work I saw it, part of the series “The Disasters of War” by Spanish artist and modernist pioneer Francisco de Goya. The 2018 artistic covering of the Ringturm will be on display until mid-September.
The wrapping of the Ringturm headquarters of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) is one of many outstanding cultural projects initiated by VIG’s main shareholder, Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein. It is one of the largest and most spectacular works of urban art and a prominent symbol of art in public spaces, with a reach that extends far beyond Austria’s borders.
