Heil Gnomessler
German artist Ottmar Hörl made a gold colored gnome that gave a Nazi salute earlier this year as it is stated in the article in Times Magazine. A gallery owner, Erwin Weigl, the article continues, has put the gnome on the display of his gallery not recognizing that it was giving a Nazi salute. Later he and the artist was sued due to the Anti-Nazi Laws in Germany. Times goes on to say,
After a week-long probe, the authorities dropped their investigation, having decided that, as a work of art, Hörl’s gnome is exempt from the law. But the fact that there was an investigation at all is proof of how seriously Germany takes its anti-Nazi laws. More than 60 years after the end of World War II, the horrors of fascism and the Holocaust remain etched in Germany’s collective consciousness.
Ottmar Hörl recently installed 1250 gnomes in Ludwigsplatz Square of Straubing, a town in Germany, to protest and raise consciousness to the point that “Germans need to move on from the past.” It is called The Dance With the Devil.
All gnomes stood in the square raising their hands Heil! Heil to the death of the past…
There are a few reviews and comments written about Hörl‘s gnomes and reactions about them…
At Robert Bennet’s Blog brings to our attention that gnomes and dwarves are different than each other.
Iconophilia stressses on the similarity between Hörl‘s gnome and Milan Knížák‘s gnome dating back to 1989.
