A crucified frog artwork that sparked one of South Tyrol's most heated art controversies is finding new life in Vienna. Curator Günther Oberhollenzer, originally from Bruneck, has included Martin Kippenberger's infamous "Fred the Frog Rings the Bell" (1990) in a major exhibition exploring the complex relationship between contemporary art and religious experience.
The exhibition, titled "DU SOLLST DIR EIN BILD MACHEN" (You Shall Make an Image), opens at the Künstlerhaus Wien and presents 42 Austrian and international artists who engage with Christian iconography through contemporary perspectives. Oberhollenzer, who grew up in a Catholic environment in South Tyrol, has been developing this concept since 2008 when the Kippenberger controversy first erupted at the Museion in Bolzano.
"I followed the heated blasphemy debate around Fred the Frog with great interest," Oberhollenzer explained in an interview. "Back then, I conceived the idea of creating a deeper, multi-layered show about the relationship between art and religion - one that goes beyond superficial provocation and loud protests." The curator emphasizes that seventeen years later, he finally realized his vision of fostering dialogue between contemporary art and religious faith.
The controversial Kippenberger piece, which depicts a crucified green frog, is now presented in its own dedicated room at eye level with visitors, accompanied by contextualizing texts and other artworks. This thoughtful presentation marks a significant departure from its previous controversial display. Oberhollenzer describes the work as both a self-portrait by Kippenberger and a piece of social criticism, noting that the artist "uses humor and taboo-breaking to expose themes like failure, vanity, and societal hypocrisy."
Kippenberger, whom Oberhollenzer regards as "probably one of the most provocative and simultaneously humorous artists of German post-war art," created works that challenged conventional boundaries through irony, self-staging, and sharp criticism of the art world. The curator appreciates how Kippenberger's mix of painting, sculpture, installation, and conceptual art deliberately broke boundaries while questioning the idea of artistic genius.
The exhibition is organized into seven thematic chapters: Icon, (False) Holiness, Cross, Resurrection, Divinity, Madonna, and Last Supper. Featured artists range from established figures like Marina Abramović, VALIE EXPORT, Renate Bertlmann, Margot Pilz, and Hermann Nitsch to younger artists such as Sumi Anjuman, Ina Loitzl, Johannes Rass, and Esther Stauss. Several South Tyrolean artists are also represented, including Aron Demetz, Paul Sebastian Feichter, Sissa Micheli, Sylvie Riant, and Thomas Sterna.
Oberhollenzer's curatorial approach emphasizes the commonalities between artistic creativity and religious feeling, noting that both involve the irrational and mysterious. "Faith cannot be grasped purely intellectually - the Church speaks of the mystery of faith. Art also often emerges from feeling and intuition; its enigmatic quality fascinates precisely through its inscrutability," he observed.
The exhibition explores how both religion and art address fundamental questions of existence - meaning, world, and being. While religion, particularly Catholicism, dogmatically attempts to provide answers, art poses questions and invites reflection through individual, creative processes. This creates what Oberhollenzer calls a "doubling of reality" - religion makes the unfamiliar familiar while art makes the familiar strange, opening new perspectives.
Securing the Kippenberger piece required personal negotiation, with Oberhollenzer traveling specifically to Tyrol to meet with the collector. "The personal contact and dialogue were often decisive for obtaining a work," he noted. The collector was present at the opening, demonstrating the positive outcome of this direct approach. Most works in the exhibition come directly from artists or private collections rather than public museums.
When asked about his personal beliefs, Oberhollenzer, who celebrated his name day on October 9th just before the exhibition opening, stated simply: "I believe in the imaginative power of art and religion." This philosophy underlies his curatorial vision of creating meaningful dialogue between these two powerful forms of human expression, moving beyond the polarization that characterized the original Kippenberger controversy toward a more nuanced understanding of how contemporary artists engage with religious themes.
