Putting Up resistance? / Ustanovitev odpora?

The bronze figure of the torchbearer stood for decades in the basement of the Slovenian Cultural Association of Radsberg/Radiše in Carinthia/Koroška. In 2024, it was identified as a partisan statue by the artist Marijan Matijević (1907–1971). He likely created it in the late 1940s. During this period, the Carinthian partisan resistance provided a basis for argumentation in negotiations with the Allies regarding its own contribution to the liberation of Austria from National Socialism. The figure bears witness to an anti-fascist consensus of the early Second Republic. This largest resistance movement in the German Reich was soon suppressed again in Austria after 1945, and the statue was never erected.

After nearly 80 years in storage, it is time to discuss this figure publicly: What does its story reveal about the history of the resistance? What does it mean today to erect a partisan memorial? How do societies find contemporary forms of remembrance?

Project lead and artistic-educational practice: Isabella Burtscher and Jakob Holzer

Artists: Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch

Programmend by Gabriele Mackert

An exhibition by Zveza koroških partizanov / Association of Carinthian Partisans in cooperation with Muzej / Museum Peršman, kärnten.museum, section a