Serie Anschläge

The word »Anschlag« is ambiguous. It can mean an official statement or announcement displayedin a public place, or even an attack. Peter Weibel operates with this ambivalent meaning. In the pictures of the photographic series »Anschläge« [Attacks] from the years 1970 to 1975, Weibel can be seen holding up letters and words against numerous public buildings and signs, or holding them up in front of signs that are themselves announcements, so that the existing inscriptions receive a changed meaning. With the changes from »Staatsanwalt« [public prosecutor] to »Staatsgewalt« [state power] or from »Landesgericht« [regional court] to »Schandesgericht« [disgraceful court] Weibel expresses his protest against the state system, which is found in many of his works from the 1960s and 1970s. The »places attacked« were primarily public institutions and locations of courts where power is exercised. With his linguistic interventions, Weibel comments on a system he perceives as oppressive and corrupt.