Porajmos Walter Kratner
Porajmos
The memorial qualifies National Socialist crimes as genocide against Sinti and Roma, which was carried out with the same motive of racial madness, with the same intent and the same will of planned and final annihilation as against the Jews. The memorial on the Weizberg (2012) is a gesture to the victim generation. The design comes from Walter Kratner and shows the broken wheel axle of a freight wagon as a symbol of deportation and genocide. The theme of memory is supplemented by the “Porajmos” writing board. The term means "devouring" in the Sinti and Roma language and describes the National Socialist genocide of the European Roma, who are persecuted as "gypsies". The number of victims is unknown. According to different estimates, however, it has six digits for a wide range.
Walter Kratner
Walter Kratner was born in 1954 in Graz (Austria). He recieved his education from the University of Florence (Design and History of Art). He lived for many years in Switzerland and San Francisco.
His site specific installation works include the Memorial „Porajmos“ to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism. He recieved a 2002 Carl Djerassi Artists-In Residence Program Award. He exhibited his work at the Exploratorium, The Refusalon Gallery, the Projects Room in San Francisco, in Teheran and Istanbul, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Hamburg, Graz and in different places and cultural institutions in Europe.
His revisited photographs used to transform and reconstruct memory and history. Recently the artist reflects on the situation for refugees in Europe and in the Middle East.
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