Exhibition Histories: "Please Love Austria!"

The Austrian government is now for the second time a coalition of the centre-right and far-right parties ÖVP and FPÖ. The first time was in the year 2000, when Christoph Schlingensief (1960–2010) responded by putting a shipping container next to the Vienna State Opera and filling it with twelve asylum seekers. Over the next six days, those whom the public voted to evict would be deported – according to the official announcement. Known as “Ausländer Raus” (Foreigners Out), the project provoked intense reactions and is the best example of what was at stake in the artist's work. Spike spoke to Matthias Lilienthal and Anselm Franke about taking the right at their word and what Schlingensief might do today.