29 June 2020

Martin Grandits releases wearable artwork series with critical views on living in Vienna at the new online art-shop martingrandits.com

The t-shirt on this page with the writing 'Wien Hasst Wien' (Vienna Hates Vienna) is one of the items which will be available as limited editions from mid-July. The shop by Austrian artist Martin Grandits (studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna) was launched several days ago on 25 June. The first artwork series consists of 12 products such as the AMS t-shirt in a limited edition of 40 pieces. The AMS (Arbeitsmarktservice) is the job market service of the Austrian state where in the beginning of the pandemic around 1,7 million people (of a population of nearly 9 millions) were registered due to short-time work or unemployment. So, the AMS sign evokes lots of emotions as everyone connected to the AMS faces a threatened existence with exclusion from society, poverty and the fear to live as homeless citizen as the money gets shortened by the AMS after a while to an amount which makes it difficult to cover living costs in Vienna. Additionally to the precarious job market situation, people don't necessarily become friendlier in harder times.

Images from left: The 'Wien Hasst Wien' (Vienna Hates Vienna) t-shirt is announced to be available from mid-July at martingrandits.com. Photo: © Johanna Marousek.
Right: Martin Grandits. Photo: © Xandra Linsin.