Pig's heart and guns on display church

During Lent, works by contemporary artists can be seen in three Innsbruck churches. The magnificent altars are usually covered with purple cloths in order to fast with the eyes as well. The current artworks thematise war and suffering and are meant to invite discussion.

In front of the high altar of the Innsbruck Hospital Church hangs a photo of a greatly enlarged pig's heart, which is known to be very similar to the human organ. The Styrian media artist Peter Garmusch is concerned with the interplay between the vastness of the heart and being constricted. The statement is reinforced by a rubber band that constricts the heart.

A photographic work by Peter Garmusch hangs in front of the high altar of Innsbruck's Spital Church during Lent.

The constricting rubber band is meant to create a feeling of oppression.

"Hard to digest" art

For some worshippers, the sight of the bloody depiction covering the high altar is hard to digest. Their displeasure was heard by the artist shortly after the photographic work was hung. But wounds and bleeding hearts are nothing unusual in Christian iconography. Peter Garmusch compares his work with the well-known depiction of the heart of Jesus entwined with thorns.

Christian Eisenberger has arranged three huge, wooden machine guns into a "fireplace" in Innsbruck Cathedral.

Art Space Church

For more than 30 years, art historian Elisabeth Larcher has been committed to the presentation of contemporary art in Tyrolean churches. Until the 19th century, religious art had mostly been topical, but the break with modernism changed that, says Larcher.

Together with her recently deceased husband, the theologian Gerhard Larcher, she founded the working group "Kunst-Raum-Kirche" in 2001 and has organised numerous top-class exhibitions.

On a video Eisenberger makes the guns burst into flames - a wishful thinking.

A work by the Styrian artist Christian Eisenberger can be seen in Innsbruck Cathedral during Lent.

A "holy" war?

Christian Eisenberger has assembled three monumental Kalashnikovs made of flamed wood into a bonfire. On a video, he makes the weapons burst into flames. The work can be interpreted in many ways, says Elisabeth Larcher.

For her personally, the statement ranges from the discussion of whether Tyrolean marksmen should be allowed to enter church halls with their weapons to the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch towards the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. "When the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kyrill says that the war against Ukraine is holy, then I ask myself where we stand," Larcher calls for reflection.

The art historian, Elisabeth Larcher has been campaigning for the presentation of contemporary art in Tyrolean churches for years.

Cathedral provost Florian Huber also recognises a message in the material of the rifle installation. Whoever attacks the flamed wood gets his hands dirty. "How long can you watch violence without getting your hands dirty?" asks Huber.

Depictions of violence in the church

Opposite Eisenberger's gun sculpture is the 17th-century tomb of Maximilian III in the left aisle of Innsbruck Cathedral. The bronze sculpture shows the sovereign kneeling with his sword at his side. Representations of weapons are also omnipresent in the images of martyrs from Sebastian to Catherine. War and violence are by no means left out of the church interiors, emphasises Cathedral Provost Huber.

Shepherd's crook made of eggshells

As a peaceful counterpart, Eisenberger places a shepherd's crook made of eggshells in the altar room. The egg, he says, is a Christian symbol of resurrection, and he also sees the material as a sign of fragility. "We live in a trembling world, which we encounter with trembling," the artist says. "Through trembling, however, man would also generate body heat".

Eisenberger has designed a modern lenten cloth for the high altar of Innsbruck's Servite Church.

Comic-like lamentations for today

Christian Eisenberger continues to explore the theme of violence. Especially for the high altar of Innsbruck's Servitenkirche, the artist has created a modern dance of death that gets under your skin. He has rickety skeletons dance acrobatically in front of the frozen living. Eisenberger sketches comic-like, easy-to-read motifs on metre-long lengths of fabric. Among them, one recognises the Batman logo as a sign of longing for a saviour, as well as fat cars or glued hands.

"I think it is necessary and right that current, socio-political topics are included in the prayer," says Martin Lintner, the prior of the convent.

A modern dance of death hangs in front of the age of Innsbruck's Servite Church

Rickety skeletons perform an acrobatic dance in front of frozen living bodies.

Addressing the signs of the times

Innsbruck's Servite Church will be open to contemporary art for the first time during Lent. Prior Martin Lintner openly admits that not all the confreres were enthusiastic about the action from the beginning. However, they decided together to support the altar design curated by Bishop Hermann Glettler.

One visitor to the church had already complained bitterly that even the tabernacle was covered by the modern Lenten cloth. "I think that the Lenten cloths also have the function of making us aware that we live in a world in which the glory of God is obscured by a great deal of suffering. These modern lenten cloths express that well," said Professor Martin Lintner, who also teaches at the University in Bolzano.

The Batman logo could be read as a longing for a saviour.

Art as an "optical disturbance

The tradition of covering the precious paintings and gilded altars with purple cloths during Lent dates back to the Middle Ages and is meant to invite the eyes to fast. Eisenberger's exuberant Dance of Death does not fulfil this claim.

The contemporary works are more of a visual disturbance, says Bishop Hermann Glettler. They invite us to confrontation. Art is also powerless, says Glettler, it can only show and point. He hopes, however, that the serious signs of the times will be read. Another good thing about the action, according to art historian Elisabeth Larcher, is that the interventions are only temporary. They will be taken down again at Easter.

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