BLOCKFREI

Within the framework of the Creative Europe project „(In)Visible Traces. Artistic memories of the Cold War“, realized by BLOCKFREI in cooperation with , this series of upcoming posts seeks to draw attention to the less visible Cold War legacies inscribed in Vienna’s urban landscape— with a particular focus on Palais Epstein and its layered Cold War history.

On the façade of Palais Epstein, memory is present—but easily overlooked. The commemorative plaques marking Jewish remembrance, democratic reform, and the years of Soviet military command are embedded into the architecture rather than foregrounded. They do not demand attention; they require it. This quiet mode of inscription reflects how Austria has often approached difficult chapters of its past—through restrained acknowledgment rather than public confrontation. The Cold War presence of the Soviet headquarters is recorded in stone, yet remains largely invisible within everyday urban perception.

Moreover, the Latin phrase “Sunt lacrimae rerum”—“There are tears in things”—suggests that suffering is inscribed in history and in the material world itself. Its use of Latin at Palais Epstein signals distance and universality, framing loss as timeless rather than specific to a single actor or moment. This choice softens political responsibility while still acknowledging historical trauma. In this way, the phrase mirrors how difficult pasts in Austria are often remembered: present, but deliberately muted.

📷Credits: BLOCKFREI

#(In)visibleTraces

Within the framework of the Creative Europe project „(In)Visible Traces. Artistic memories of the Cold War“, realized by BLOCKFREI in cooperation with , this series of upcoming posts seeks to draw attention to the less visible Cold War legacies inscribed in Vienna’s urban landscape— with a particular focus on Palais Epstein and its layered Cold War history.

Remembering the Cold War in Austria is inseparable from the country’s postwar self-understanding as neutral and victimized. Memory scholar Hildegard Uhl has emphasized that Austria long relied on narratives that framed the period after 1945 as one of external occupation rather than internal responsibility. This perspective shaped how everyday experiences of control, adaptation, and compromise were absorbed into collective memory. The presence of Soviet headquarters in central Vienna was normalized through routine, even as it structured daily life. As Uhl notes, memory in Austria has often been marked by “selective remembering and strategic forgetting,” particularly when political continuity was at stake. Remembering this period today therefore means confronting not only geopolitical pressure, but also how neutrality became a stabilizing—and silencing—framework for historical interpretation.

📷Credits: BLOCKFREI

#(In)visibleTraces

Within the framework of the Creative Europe project „(In)Visible Traces. Artistic memories of the Cold War“, realized by BLOCKFREI in cooperation with , this series of upcoming posts seeks to draw attention to the less visible Cold War legacies inscribed in Vienna’s urban landscape.

During the postwar period, Vienna occupied a unique and fragile position as a neutral city between opposing political blocs. Historian Tony Judt described the city as a place where ideological confrontation existed without open warfare—a “frontline city without a front.” This condition shaped everyday life as much as high-level diplomacy.

The Palais Epstein functioned as a bureaucratic center where decisions were processed, reports circulated, and authority was enacted through paperwork, meetings, and controlled access. Such interiors embodied the city’s Cold War atmosphere: tense, procedural, and quietly vigilant. For civilians passing by, this presence was constant yet opaque. Here, the Cold War was experienced not through explosions or speeches, but through regulated movement, surveillance, and the normalization of uncertainty.

📷 Credits:

#(In)visibleTraces

Within the framework of the Creative Europe project „(In)Visible Traces. Artistic memories of the Cold War“, realized by BLOCKFREI in cooperation with , this series of upcoming posts seeks to draw attention to the less visible Cold War legacies inscribed in Vienna’s urban landscape.

Palais Epstein, located in the very centre of Vienna - next to the Austrian parliament - is not only an architectural landmark but a site deeply embedded in Austria’s political history. Built in the late 19th century, the palace has served key institutional functions connected to parliamentary life and state administration. After 1945, during the Allied occupation of Austria, Palais Epstein was used as the headquarters of the Soviet occupying forces in Vienna, until 1955. During this period, the building became part of the everyday machinery of occupation, control, and negotiation in a divided Europe. Its walls bear witness to a moment when Vienna stood at the intersection of competing geopolitical systems.

📷 Credits:
Lessing / Bildarchiv der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek.

𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 in the framework of Curators´Agenda: VIENNA 2025 - Installation view images (by Lea-Maraike Sambale)

Curators´ Agenda: VIENNA 2025
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