Last night July 23rd six billboards by the German artist Anne Imhof were vandalised along one of Bregenz’s busiest streets.
Anne Imhof on her Instagram account :
Last night, July 23rd, each of the six Wish You Were Gay billboards along Bregenz’s busiest street were destroyed in an act of violent aggression.
It is deeply painful to look at the images and I am truly hurt.
Wish You Were Gay is a love song to queer coming of age. It is a testament to the beauty and strength that the chosen family provides to those of LGBTQIA2S+ experience.
On the other hand, Wish You Were Gay also bears witness to the deep struggle and hostility facing LGBTQIA2S+ people everyday, everywhere.
This attack on love, creativity and freedom only serves as proof of this struggle, but this hate crime cannot take away our hope for a world free from homophobia and free from discrimination for each and every one of us.
The @kunsthausbregenz billboards serve as a space for public art and are a tradition of the museum since 1997.
Destroying them is not only an assault on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two spirit and questioning people, but is an assault on the community of Bregenz.
The billboards, designed in collaboration with @zakgroupoffice, will be replaced as soon as possible.
The works were recently installed in one of Bregenz’s main thoroughfares, Bregenzer Seestrasse, as part of the artist’s exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Wish You Were Gay, until 22nd September.
Thomas Trummer, director of the Kunsthaus Bregenz, added in a statement:
This is a cowardly attack on art and our human rights. Homophobia has no place in our society.
The Wish You Were Gay exhibition explores “absence and presence set against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic isolation”, a museum statement said.
Anne Imhof, Wish You Were Gay – 22nd September 2024, Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB)
