Looking through plexiglas, subjects are fragmented, contours blur and light blends, multiplies and slips away, reflecting fragmented silhouettes of reality. Plexiglas is the material of modernity: a multifunctional plastic resin that has become a symbol of modern innovation, revolutionising the production system. However, when viewed through a critical lens, this material is transformed; developed and produced in Germany during the Nazi regime, plexiglass was used as part of industrial engineering aimed exclusively at the needs of war and in a context of exploitation.
Franz Wanner, “Schatten I,” 2024/25, “Musterfolien”, 2024/25, installation view, “Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation”, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Merano, 2025, photo credits Ivo Corrà, courtesy artist and Kunst Meran
Reflecting on this disturbing paradox, Franz Wanner (Bad Tölz, 1975) makes his debut at Kunst Meran Merano Arte with a solo exhibition entitled Presenze Sospese. Immagini di uno sfruttamento (Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation). The exhibition is a device with which the artist explores a dark and often silenced chapter of German history, namely forced labour during the regime and the deep scars left on the collective body and contemporary fabric. The object at the centre of his practice is a pair of protective plexiglas goggles that Wanner found in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 2022. They were probably made inside the camp by a forced labourer using scrap materials from the war industry and were intended to protect part of the body. It was a gesture of resistance and rebellion by an individual who remains anonymous to this day, who, despite being subjected to the brutality of the regime, experimented with a form of self-protection. This silent resistance represents a powerful challenge to the prohibition of protection and symbolises the struggle for survival in the heart of violence.
Franz Wanner, “Berlin-Lichtenberg”, 2024, “Musterfolien”, 2024/25, installation view, “Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation”, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Merano, 2025, photo credits Ivo Corrà, courtesy artist and Kunst Meran
The exhibition is a journey into the artist’s practice, which blends documentary research and artistic-visual narration, reconsidering historical memory and bringing to light details that the dominant narrative has glossed over. It consists of photographs, texts, videos and installations, which are not just images but tools aimed at revealing the connections between a violent, inhuman system and the present. The viewer is greeted by the first of a group of three works called “shadows”, which offers a contemporary view of the hidden legacy of National Socialism. Schatten I (2024/25) is an installation sculpture entirely made of plexiglas, in which the artist has created a minimalist structure of intersecting vertical and horizontal slabs, cubic and irregular in shape. The work explores a connection between cultural work and forced labour – evident in the Nazi cultural past when forced labourers were tasked with saving museum works during the bombings – which is still evident in the current context, albeit hidden and omitted.
Franz Wanner, “Schatten III”, 2024/25, “30 000 Rahmen”, 2024, installation view, “Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation”, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Merano, 2025, ph credits Ivo Corrà, courtesy artist and Kunst Meran
In the exhibition, each work opens up a new perspective on both the connections between reality and memory and the absolute roots of a system of exploitation that cuts across industrial, political and social contexts, leaving traces that are still visible today. Franz Wanner forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the exploitation of forced labourers during the Nazi period permeated every layer of society and benefited large sections of the population. Franz Wanner’s practice is not limited to documentation, but is an act of profound discovery and analysis in the folds of memory, bringing to light dynamics of power and exploitation that the official narrative still covers up today.
AA.VV., “AlpiTypes: Letters, Images, Traces”, installation view at Kunst Meran Merano Arte, 2025, photo credits Ivo Corrà, courtesy artist and Kunst Meran
At the same time, Kunst Meran Merano Arte also inaugurated the exhibition AlpiTypes: letters, images, traces, curated by Antonino Benincasa, Massimo Martignoni and Anna Zinelli. This project combines modern and contemporary art, examining the graphic heritage of early 20th-century Tyrol and presenting it not only as an archive but also as a basis for dialogue and renewal. The exhibition consists of two parts: the first is a varied collection of posters, books and magazines that recount a rich cultural past, while the second features contributions from students at the Free University of Bolzano, who pay homage to and reactivate a reflection on the history of design and the new directions of the present. The alternation of historical and current visual materials gives rise to an exchange between generations and realities. The experimentation of these young authors transforms the graphic landscape of the 20th century into active codes and a living legacy.
Info:
Franz Wanner, Presenze Sospese. Immagini di uno sfruttamento (Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation)
curated by Kristina Kreutzwald and Martina Oberprantacher
25/10/2025 – 18/01/2026
AA.VV. AlpiTypes: lettere immagini tracce (AlpiTypes: letters, images, traces)
curated by Antonino Benincasa, Massimo Martignoni and Anna Zinelli
25/10/2025 – 18/01/2026
Kunst Meran Merano Arte
Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Via dei Portici, 163, I-39012, Merano (BZ)
Merano Arte
Irene Follador (Venice, 1997) is an emerging critic and curator. She graduated first in Art History at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, and then she obtained a master’s degree at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. She has been collaborating with Juliet Art Magazine for a long time and, at the same time, she carries out her independent curatorial practice; her research and interest mainly tends towards works of moving images and new Media within the contemporary art system.
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