From 2005 to 2009, Karl Vouk painted nine so-called Carinthian triptychs that involve a considerable deal of criticism and sarcasm as they lay bare the political reality in Carinthia and Austria’s neglect towards the Slovenian minority in that region. They were created on the 50th anniversary of the Austrian State Treaty, or rather the 50th anniversary of the failure to comply with it. During their first exhibition for a festive ceremony in the gallery of the Carinthian State Diet in Klagenfurt, they garnered an animated political response.

Triptych # 1 “Horuck üba’n Loibl!” (The defamed slogan of the right-wing Austrian nationalists used while expelling members of the Slovenian minority across the border to former Yugoslavia). It refers to the fact that Yugoslavia erected a monument to internees, victims of fascism, who were forced to dig a tunnel under the Ljubelj pass during WW II. Austria hesitated until recently before finally sticking a small commemorative tag beside the tunnel entrance on its side of the border crossing.

Text: Marko Košan