Klaus Biliczky - winner of the Ansbach Art Prize 2018 - special prize sculpture
Laudation on the occasion of the award ceremony of the Ansbach Art Prize 2018
on October 31, 2018 in the Karlshalle in Ansbach:


Dear Sirs and Madames,
Dear art lovers and art lovers,

Klaus Biliczky today receives this year's special price of the Ansbach Art Prize in the sculpture category with his three-part work “Danger for Democracy”.

Klaus Biliczky is a freelance artist and autodictate. In various creative periods he created pen, pencil and chalk drawings, collages and etchings and finally turned to abstract art and object art. The subjects of his oeuvre take up current social and political developments. This is also the case in the award-winning work. The sculptural work shows three red-painted pedestals, all of which carry an antique portable typewriter. There is identically arranged text on the clamped papers of the typewriters.
A black heading is followed by a section of text set in red, followed by a closing line in black. Only the letters that are used in the last line can be played on the keyboard. All other buttons are completely blocked by protruding nails.
The text encounters the fake news with truth, the fake news award with the free press and exposes Trump's supposed nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize itself as fake news.
The idea of the work dates back to the 2016 presidential election campaign, from which Donald Trump emerged victorious and was then elected 45th President of the United States. During the election campaign and now during his term in office, Trump has spread falsehoods countless times on the one hand and denounced serious sources of critical reporting as fake news on the other.
According to Duden, fake news in the media, especially in social media, is manipulative false reports. As so-called alternative facts, they even come close to conspiracy theories.
Biliczky is showing a work that should itself be understood as a stop that prevents the further spread of fake news. As a watchful observer, the artist asks us to distinguish deceptive propaganda from actual events and facts, especially when it comes from the state or institutional side. In order to clarify "the [current] danger to democracy", Biliczky shows the platforms in a sloping position as a metaphor for the state of our democracy.

Mr. Biliczky, congratulations on honoring your critical work of art!
Thank you for your attention!


(Damaris Zeller-Reinhardt MA art historian)