Schloss Tirol – Turm der Erinnerung
80 years have passed since the events of the South Tyrolean Option reached its peak. To mark this occasion, the exhibition “Großdeutschland ruft!/La grande Germania chiama!“ (The Greater German Reich is calling!) at the Tyrol Castle in Merano shows previously unknown Nazi propaganda material which promoted the emigration of the South Tyrolean population to the so-called Greater German Reich. The contemporary artist Riccardo Giacconi opposes the found materials with his work Tingierung. The catalogue by curator Hannes Obermair, produced alongside the exhibition, deals in detail with the propaganda material and the context they were created in.
The catalogue
The catalogue provides a detailed historical review of the found materials. In the beginning or the catalogue, the kitschy, fascist visions of the future are contrasted with a contemporary examination of the aesthetics of the Nazi era with works by the artist Riccardo Giacconi. His series Tingierung also lead the visitors into the exhibition space at the museum. The propaganda drawings originate from the estate of SS-member Josef Dorfmann and are designed by different hands. The documents divide the bilingual catalogue in the middle and form the transition from the German to the Italian part of the publication.
Visual communication
Lupo Burtscher is responsible for the design of the communication materials, the exhibition and the catalogue. The design elements form elements of the works of Riccardo Giacconi, while in the background the structure of the parchment paper of the original propaganda drawings is made visible, revealing the historical dimension. Handwritten notes and messages, that seem to be written spontaneously on the back of some documents, draw us closer to a time that seems to be so far in the past.
