DIE STILLE DER UNSCHULD - DER KÜNSTLER GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN

Preserved fetuses, bandaged children covered in blood, Marilyn Manson made up as a sinister Mickey Mouse – Gottfried Helnwein’s shocking, uncompromising images have disturbed and fascinated the world for over 30 years, leaving a lasting impression on viewers and provoking them to confront their deepest fears. Striking, and strangely beautiful, the Austrian artist’s works are permeated with political, social and historical themes - fascism, child abuse, war, globalisation – and bore deep into our collective subconscious. Sincehis first show in 1971, when his pictures were covered with yellow stickers labelling them 'degenerate,' Helnwein’s photographs, paintings and installations have probed the dark side of human existence, evoking a frisson of horror and excitement. Having been aware of Helnwein’s oeuvre since the 1970s, director Claudia Schmid has become increasingly convinced by the significance and power of his radical approach. Her film reveals the artistic processes and the personal world of an uninhibited creative talent.

"It is not my pictures people fear, it is their own pictures in their heads. My works clearly

trigger something that is already present in the beholder’s subconscious. If I manage to put my finger on the right spot sometimes it makes me feel like my work has a purpose. And the day when the entire philistine society embraces me would be the day I would stop all of my artistic work. Then I’d know that I’d done something wrong." – Gottfried Helnwein

"It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition: to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows. Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition." - William S Burroughs