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17. 09. 09. - 13:00

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17. 09. 09. - 13:00

Row over Fritzl-inspired art show in London

By Thomas Hochwarter

A British artist has been forced to defend a new controversial art exhibition inspired by the Josef Fritzl incest case in Amstetten.

Nicolas Ruston’s "Euphoria" installation combines a surreal, vacant pornography film-set in flashy colours with hints of the Fritzl basement dungeon crime such as police markings.

But he has rejected accusations of trying to create "shock hype" and foment public disgust with his work which is on show at London's Holster Projects gallery as part of its current "De$ire" exhibition.

He said today (Thurs): "This show came about as it was based on sexual ideologies, in my case in the mass media. I used Fritzl as a ‘case study’, not for the shock value.

"The sexual part of the Josef Fritzl story was sold as a commodity, which is very much the way the commercial world works. But the thing I was really engaged by was the fact that [his victim] Elisabeth’s children had been born into an environment where their only window to the world was through the TV, through the mass media," he explained.

Ruston said he tried to create "a fantasy world in this very claustrophobic place".

"The lighting is a baby pink, quite cold. I wanted it to be a bit cold and confusing," he said, adding he wanted to "illustrate the difference between making love and pornography" as he thought this was "a metaphor for the way people relate to the mass media."

The gallery said the exhibition, which runs until 10 October, tried to "explore contemporary sexual ideologies".

Josef Fritzl, 74, was sentenced to life in prison in March after pleading guilty to having kept his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave for 24 years in a dungeon under the family home in Amstetten. He fathered seven children with her and allowed one of them, a boy, to die after he was born with breathing complications.

Ruston’s exhibition is not the first to cause public controversy because of its Fritzl links.

Austrian theologian Florian Nährer sparked outrage after putting up a pop-art-influenced picture of Josef Fritzl in a café in July 2008.

Nährer said he wanted to show that "God sees good in every person" when he put the 150 x 120 cm acrylic entitled "Torture - cellar - child - molester - incest - beast of Amstetten or the man Josef Fritzl loved by God" on display in a café in Sankt Pölten, the town where Josef Fritzl faced justice.

Austrian Times

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