2 July 2020

Annotation on 22 July 2021: Marc Quinn withdraws his artwork. The call for the creation of the memorial will be started again. (Source: Press information "Denkmal für homosexuelle NS-Opfer im Resselpark wird neu ausgeschrieben" via APA OTS)

Marc Quinn's same-sex sculpture for Vienna is a memorial for victims of the Nazi era, against hate, violence, homophobia and a call to show love

Yesterday, the City of Vienna's Anti-Discrimination Agency for Same-sex and Transgender Lifestyle and Vienna's Culture Department, division Art in Public Space presented the sculpture by British artist Marc Quinn showing two pair of hands - two female and two male - as memorial for the persecution of homosexual men and women during the Holocaust of the Nazi era and larger-than-life sized monument for love. The hands which are touching each other with gestures of familiarity will be built at the Resselpark at Karlsplatz. The competition for the memorial started earlier this year with the invitation of the art groups and artists Gelitin/Gelatin, Matthias Herrmann, Martin Pfeifle, Jakob Lena Knebl, Stephen Prina, Susanne Lorenz, Every Ocean Hughes (EOH) and Marc Quinn. Stadt Wien published the results of the competition online. The jury references at the statement the study 'A long way to go for LGBTI equality' (May 2020) by the European Union Agency For Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the finding (cited by Fashion.at directly from the study) that a "majority still avoid holding their partner's hand in public. They may have good reason to be discreet. Among those who are very open about being LGBTI, 40 % say they experienced harassment. Physical or sexual attacks also remain a concern: one in ten survey participants say they were targets of such violence in the five years before the survey."

Image: On 1 July 2020, the City of Vienna presented Marc Quinn's draft of the sculpture for the memorial for homosexual men and women who were victims of the persecution in the Nazi era. The artwork for the Resselpark in the 4th district of Vienna was selected by a jury on 29 June 2020. A close description of the sculpture is published at wien.gv.at with the information (fast checked by Fashion.at today) that the "hands will be moulded from the hands of two homosexual men and two homosexual women who will have been invited to participate in the project through an open call in Vienna". Copyright: Marc Quinn.