The Voices – Susan Philipsz

To mark the commemorative year 2018 – 100 years since the proclamation of the First Republic – the House of Austrian History commissioned Scottish artist Susan Philipsz to create a site-specific installation for one of Austria’s central places of national memory: Vienna’s Heldenplatz. Making use of the infamous “Hitler balcony” above the entrance of the Neue Burg, where Hitler first announced the “annexation” of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938, Philipsz not only redefines the space for contemporary visitors, but also calls attention to the lingering effects of a violent past and Austria’s responsibility toward it.

“The Voices”, a temporary sound installation, is an eerie collection of sounds that meander and echo across the open space of the Heldenplatz, bouncing between, on one end, the balcony of the Neue Burg – the symbol of Austria’s complicity in Nazi crimes – and, on the opposite end, two temporary Parliament pavilions, a symbol of Austrian democracy today.

The sounds transmitted across the square, which were created by rubbing the rims of four glasses each containing different amounts of water, rise and fall, sometimes fading to an echo, sometimes rising to a shrill high pitch. The sound of glass is meant to approximate the sound of the human voice, while its fragility evokes the ghosts of the past. The reference point of this soundtrack is the frenzied crowd of some 200,000 cheering Austrians, vociferously welcoming Hitler and the Nazi Reich to Austria in March 1938 (2018 also marked 80 years since the “Anschluss”). Philipsz’ installation plays as much with silence as it does with noise, juxtaposing the feverish voices of cheering Austrians with the millions of voices that were silenced by Nazi violence.

Susan Philipsz

“The Voices”, 2018
Four Channel Sound Installation, Radio Transmission

ⓘ This sound installation could be heard at Heldenplatz in Vienna from March 12, 2018 to May 8, 2019, daily at 12:30 pm and 6:30 pm for 10 minutes each time.

Once a day, the sound of glass resonated through the imperial staircase of the Neue Burg: the sound installation “The Voices” by artist Susan Philipsz.

Visitors were able to hear the sound installation in public space back in 2018 and 2019 – throughout Heldenplatz square, between the Neue Burg palace and the temporary parliament pavilions. Philipsz created the work at the invitation of the House of Austrian History. It refers both to the ‘Anschluss’ rally on the Heldenplatz in 1938 and the November Pogrom of that year. Now, in vicinity of the balcony where Adolf Hitler gave his speech on Austria’s “Anschluss” (‘annexation’) to Nazi Germany on 15 March 1938, the artwork is being reinstalled, this time inside the building. It was after all the chandeliers over the main staircase that inspired Susan Philipsz’s choice of glass as a medium for this artistic installation.

The work remembers all those who were silenced by the “Anschluss” and marks the abrupt end of academic and artistic freedom in 1938. When located at this historic site, the sound installation is also a call for democracy and human rights in the present.

Susan Philipsz

“The Voices”, 2018
Four Channel Sound Installation

ⓘ Once a day from May 8, 2021, at 5:15 p.m., the sound installation “The Voices” by artist Susan Philipsz resonated through the imperial staircase of the Neue Burg.

Susan Philipsz studied Fine Arts and Sculpture in Dundee and Belfast. She was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 2010, and she carries the Order of the British Empire. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

Download the publication "Susan Philipsz – The Voices" for free.

With forewords by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Federal Minister Gernot Blümel, texts by Heidemarie Uhl and Thomas D. Trummer, as well as an interview with the artist conducted by Eva Meran.

“The Voices” was made possible by the generous support of the Federal Chancellery of Austria.