Who polices the police? Michèle Pagel reposes this question in a storefront installation in Braunau’s old town. The occasion is the 2024 founding of the Independent Reporting Office for Police Violence (EBM) – a long-overdue step that immediately provoked reactionary resistance.
Pagel combines sculptures, collages, found objects, and archival material related to police gear, self-image, and language. The installation is complemented by Marielena Stark’s sculpture “ACAB” and Thomas Brandstätter’s video work “Is That Coming Here Now?”
The presentation shifts between satire and critical inquiry, advocating – without being radical – for a sober reckoning with abuse of power.
CV
Michèle Pagel, born in 1985 in Werdau (Germany), studied sculpture in Leipzig, Milan, and Vienna, and graduated in 2012 under Julian Göthe at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Between 2009 and 2014, she taught sculptural ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz, where she currently also works as a lecturer. Her works have been shown in group and solo exhibitions worldwide, including at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow, the Startgalerie at MUSA, the MAK, Lentos Linz, and Galerie Meyer Kainer. Michèle Pagel lives and works in Vienna.