La Strada project

Healing the open wounds of humanity with art

The project celebrated its premiere in Mauthausen

(Bild: Nick Mangafas)

Greek artist Elli Papakonstantinou's production "Die Gütigen" (The Kind Ones) plays with historically burdened places. At La Strada, it can be seen on the site of the former Nazi labor camp in Liebenau. She spoke to the "Krone" in advance about the healing but also cautionary function of art.

"Places like Mauthausen are still open wounds in the history of mankind," says Elli Papakonstantinou. In the former Nazi concentration camp in Upper Austria, the Greek artist created the production "The Kind Ones". "I researched the history of the place and initially fell into a state of shock," she says.

How can you turn the horror that happened there into art? "But art can also be healing, a process that helps us to understand better," she says. She has used texts by survivors as well as passages from Aeschylus' "Oresteia", because: "Even in ancient times, violence and the trauma it can trigger were a major theme. It's practically a constant of humanity," says Papakonstantinou.

Artist Elli Papakonstantinou

(Bild: Alex Kat)

In "Die Gütigen", she invites visitors to a dinner at a historically charged location - and confronts them with the history of the place. In Graz, the play will be performed on the site of the Liebenau camp - the largest Nazi forced labor camp in the Styrian capital. "For the Graz version, we have incorporated the history of the camp into the play. But the sad thing is: the more often I adapt this production, the clearer it becomes that these places actually all have a very similar history," says Papakonstantinou.

This also includes the fact that the local people didn't want to talk about it for a long time: "Places like this not only traumatize the victims, but also the people who live in the area." The result is usually that there is simply not much talk about the history. "But if you don't want to talk and think about history, you run the risk of repeating it," she says.

And so her production is not only intended to be an act of healing, but also a wake-up call: "Right-wing extremist tendencies are also becoming stronger and stronger in Europe. And I feel it is my and our moral duty to tell future generations the truth about the past, because only with this knowledge can they survive the future," says Papakonstantinou.

To be seen on August 1 and 2 (both at 8.30 pm) at La Strada in Graz.