Franz Wanner : Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation

A contemporary book about forced labor in the Nazi regime, told through the lens of an artist with a critical eye.

Highly political and controversial, this is art that addresses events of the past that still affect the present. Under the Nazi regime, twenty-six million people in various countries across Africa and Europe were forced into labor. Their experiences and losses continue to shape their communities and descendants to this day. While the vast majority of citizens under the Nazi government actively participated in the exploitation, most of their descendants now see themselves as having no connection to those events. The German artist Franz Wanner (b. 1975 in Bad Tölz) exposes the present-day effects of that forced labor, telling the story through photographs, texts, films, and objects--because confronting the long-term impact of the Nazi regime is more important now than ever before.

Merano Arte presents changing exhibitions in the fields of fine arts, architecture, literature, music, photography, and new media on 500 square meters of exhibition space over three floors. The body responsible for the institution is the non-profit association Kunst Meran Merano Arte, which is financed by public and private funds.