Art in Public Space Styria and ASIST
Milica Tomić
Aflenz Memorial
Opening and guided tours
© Milica Tomić, atelier le balto, studio boden, and KiöR 2026
Starting in 1944, prisoners from Mauthausen built a subcamp for the underground arms production of Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG in Aflenz an der Sulm. Research currently estimates that over one thousand prisoners were involved. Another two thousand forced laborers were housed in a nearby labor camp. After 1945, three mass graves were exhumed; at least eighty-one of the deceased are known by name.
Today, no visible traces of the camp remain. Instead of a traditional monument, Milica Tomić has designed a walkable landscape memorial. Paths along the camp boundaries allow visitors to get a sense of its dimensions; the roll call area and barracks are also marked.
The artist views the ground as an archive that preserves traces. Research in 2024 uncovered seeds from plants that historically grew there and are now being deliberately replanted. Tomić allows them to grow into a new landscape. Activated in this way, nature itself becomes a vessel for memory.
A LEADER project by ASIST (Archäologisch-Soziale Initiative Steiermark) with KiöR (Institute for Art in Public Space Styria)
Supported by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management, the Province of Styria, and the European Union
Supported by Marktgemeinde Wagna, Marktgemeinde Ehrenhausen an der Weinstraße, Holcim, Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich, and Nationalfonds der Republik Österreich für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
A cooperation in the context of steirischer herbst ’26