Illégitime, nul et non avenu / Null und nichtig

Alán Carrasco

From 1940 to 1944, the postal stamps with the collaborationist Philippe Pétain’s efigy were reestamped with the Adolf Hitler’s portrait, proving the subordination to the Führer. After 1945, the Reich’s postal stamps from the annexed Austria were reestamped with the name of the new country and with a graphic pattern that hid the defeated Führer’s effigy. After the freedom of France, Vichy ‘s Kingdom was declared «illégitime, nul et non avenu» (illegitimate, null and void). Besides, with the Austria’s declaration of independence, the Anschluss and all the national socialist administration measurements were declared «null undnichtig» (null and invalid). Drawing on this context such an excuse, and after recover two of this original stamps, the artist raises a diptych where the ascent and the fall of the the Nazi’s Regime can unveil the iconoclast mechanisms of the historical narration.

Alán Carrasco, Illégitime, nul et non avenu / Null und nichtig, 2020

Print from original postage stamps on Hahnemühle paper, aluminum frame, museum glass

2 parts: 48 x 39 cm. each

Edition 5 of 5