An interview with Philipp Muerling

-by Elizabeth Spouse

Join Philipp Muerling and his colleagues in front of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Schillerplatz) and take part in the fight for accessibility every weekday at 11am.

Philipp Muerling is a student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and is the first and only student in a wheelchair in the more than 300-year history of the institute. Philipp has Friedreich's ataxia, a progressive neurological disease that limits his motor skills and gets worse over time. In order to access the building, he has to go around the side entrance, over cobblestones, through automatic doors, and up a ramp up to an elevator. The door openers don't always work, and almost every time his e-wheelchair gets stuck on the grooves between the concrete slabs of the ramp, which has caused him to almost fall off of it on a number of occasions.

Vice Rector Werner Skvara originally said that rubber strips in the grooves should solve this problem. Given an extensive renovation of the 19th-century academy building until mid-2021, which cost 70 million euros, rubber strips seem to be an offensive suggestion, alongside the statement that monuments need to be protected.

Since October 3rd, the start of the semester, Philipp has been showing up to the front entrance of the university almost daily, hoisting himself out of his wheelchair, attempting to climb the stairs to the front doors. Philipp has asked people to come stand behind him, to block the doors for about 30 minutes, and ask people entering and exiting the building to please use the side entrance to show solidarity with their colleague who cannot enter through the main doors.

For over seven weeks, Philipp received no direct communication from the Rectorate. However, his and his colleague’s fantastic efforts have finally pushed the Vice Rector to show some real attention, sending an email to the student body offering to commission a feasibility study for an elevator at the Schillerplatz entrance by a civil engineer. Philipp will continue showing up until the Vice Rector is held to his promise and he can access the front entrance like everyone else.

The below interview with Philipp took place just before the Vice Rector sent that email, which can also be read in full at the end of this article.

Philipp, as long as you’ve been doing this action, this tiny change of implementing rubber strips suggested by Vice Rector Werner has not yet happened. Have any other more sizable/appropriate measures been suggested?

The Rector has not contacted me directly, they haven’t sent me an email or any other message. They have my email. There is so much dialogue between us. It seems to be about pride, but I know Werner Skvara, he’s a nice guy and I like him. But the Rector [Johan Hartle] has never spoken with me, never, only the Vice Rector, apparently because he’s responsible for the infrastructure, but the Rector is responsible for everything.

I was surprised that after at least four weeks of you doing this, when I went to the social media account of the academy, I didn’t see any posts about your action.

In the past I have posted many of my drawings, or when I have an exhibition or whatever, and everytime they have reposted my stories. Now nothing. Only the time I posted another drawing of mine, then they reposted it, but nothing of this action.

So there was this massively expensive renovation, but no change to the front’s accessibility because of protecting monuments?

I don’t know why they did that. It’s also hard for other people as well, to carry something, or when you have a child in a stroller.

Unfortunately I am used to this. When I was a student at Semperdepot, they made an electronic door opener for the one room where I had an atelier, but nowhere else. The accessible toilet was being used as a storage room for the cleaner, so it wasn’t even usable. I have seen this at many places around the city, like Starbucks.

The new Albertina is similar to this building, but it has been made accessible. It’s private, the owner is Haselsteiner, a very rich man in Austria. The old Albertina is much prettier than our building and it’s much bigger and everything has been made accessible, well about 80 percent, sometimes the mechanics are broken, but they have done so much.

This remark about protecting the monuments, did this come from the Rectorate?

Yeah, that’s the problem, the aesthetics of the building, it’s not possible to build a ramp because of that. When I spoke with the Vice Rector, the moment they said it, I couldn’t believe it.

What reactions have you received by doing this action? In positive, negative or even ambivalent ways?

Everyone from the academy is nice and laughy, as though to say, “We’re cool about everything, we show solidarity”, but in reality, when it comes to doing something real, it’s a problem. They’re not taking action.

It’s funny because right now there is the protest/occupation of the academy about the climate and the Rector was talking to everyone about the “Klima” action. Why now? Why not this problem? Is it more important than this issue? Of course, it’s the whole world, it’s a really big thing, but it’s also very friendly, and it’s not sexy enough, of course, to make the university for people like me possible.

You just talked about how the institution has reacted. How have people you know personally reacted? Friends, family, colleagues?

The people I speak with personally, they know what I want, but for most people I think they assume I want to make an art performance, like I want everyone to look at me, as if it’s all for me, for me, for me. Of course it was for me at first, because I wanted to be in the building, through the main entrance, but the motivation is bigger, because I know it’s good for everyone. The possibility that students in the future can study in this building. What you don’t see, you don’t think so much about. There are many forms of mental and physical disabilities and some of us have more and some have less.

Trolls on tik-tok have called you an actor, which of course you’re not and you have met with good humor. However, on many platforms this action has been presented as an art performance (“Kunstperformance” and “Kunstaktion für barrierefreiheit”) and it’s the art academy’s accessibility issue. How do you feel this layer influences the way people have been receiving what you’re doing? Does it feel like a performance for you? Do you feel your activism and requests are being taken less seriously for it? (In terms of some sort of construction to the front stairwell happening).

Of course it’s also a performance, but it’s so much more than that.

This little story is fitting. The manager for the cantina, nearly every time I have done this action, since the first day, when people wanted to help me, because of course you should help me, I need help, but they should ask me personally…he would say, “Get away, get away, it’s only an art performance, he’s only playing.” He came out and made some jokes about it. I laughed and talked with him, but it’s an important thing, it’s a serious thing. He also saw when I did the action that I can’t hold in my emotions and I think that it also shows what it means for me or someone like me. I don’t want to be in a wheelchair, I don’t want to blame everyone. I also want to be a young, cool, artsy person and live a nice life, but everything that I do takes three times longer than for others. If I can’t go into the building, then I can’t come out of the building, which is a nice metaphor.

©Oke Fijal
Depicted is a police officer asking Philipp to get back into his wheelchair and stop laying around on the steps.

I have also defaulted to the word “performance”, like when we were helping you back into your wheelchair and some police officers came, I said that you are doing a performance and they left. However, the word felt wrong. I’ve also heard you call it an “action”, which I like.

Yes, I also like “action”, it means so much.

What do you want individual people to know, or to do, or to think about after seeing this action?

I can’t say I’m in a position to- well some have started treating me like I’m the face of this thing, but can I speak for everyone? I can only speak for myself, maybe people like me…a little bit. There are so many disabilities, invisible disabilities. At the university, I only know one woman at the university, Julischka Stengele, very cool, who also said she sometimes can’t go up the stairs, so she goes behind, and they don’t want to unlock the door for her. What I want to say is that there are so many things most people don’t think about. I think that’s the main reason I do it, because I do think about it. There are many things the university addresses very well and it’s all important. There are people like me who are also of different races, genders, rich, poor…I’m a hetero, white man from this country. Some have told me that it’s not so good because I’m a white man.

The last Rector was Eva Blimlinger and in the past I wrote to her that all of the receptionists at the academy are white men over 40 who primarily only speak German, which did not match the diversity of other universities in Vienna. She said she can’t do anything about it because of the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (real estate company that owns the building), because the building is not owned by the university. I then wrote to the real estate company and they said this is not their responsibility, but the responsibility of the Rector. So no one was taking responsibility for the hiring of receptionists. I posted this email thread on my facebook account.

How has it felt for you personally to be doing this action so far, both physically and mentally? Originally you were attempting to climb up the stairs each day you were there, which has become a lot for your body, and now you are still asking others to stand behind you while you stay in your wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs.

It has felt very good. It’s hard for me to see people have to go around to the other entrance, because I don’t want them to have to do that, I want everyone to enter from the front, and don’t like that people standing up there have to ask people to go around. But it’s not only for me. So it’s good.

You can’t think about it until you know it. Until I was fourteen, I had a nice little life. I never thought about any of these problems, because they weren’t my problems. It could happen to anyone. It’s horrible, life is horrible [smiles].

You’re a cynic like I am. We have a very impatient, fast-paced society. If you can’t do something quickly enough people get impatient, or annoyed. When I came to the academy for your action and asked people to walk around to the side entrance that you have to use, it was shocking to see some people getting so angry.

Yes, it’s really hard.

When people go out for a five minute break or a cigarette, they head out the front to Schillerplatz. By the time I have to go through the whole building, out the side, and around the front, the break is over.

This shows that the same break time is not equal for everyone.

Yeah, I want to have a break like the others. I know it’s not the most beautiful thing, but platform elevators for stairs would be an option.

As an artist, do you position yourself within the framework of art as activism or is this performance out of your usual practice’s character? Has this changed the direction you will take with your art?

Nothing has changed for me, because my problems are still my problems, but the only thing that changes is that the public also has to meet me at eye level, a little bit, a little bit.

On instagram I have Vimeo links to a similar performance I did about five or six years ago called Please Do Not Touch the Artwork. I was naked on Mariahilfer Strasse and let a friend carry me to the middle of the street. I stood up and of course fell down and wanted to get back into the chair. When people wanted to help me, my friend, who acted as a bodyguard, would stand up and say, “Please do not touch the artwork”. So most people would go away, but only one man persisted in helping me, even when the security guard said he also wanted to help me, but I never spoke, only the guard spoke for me. I think for three minutes he helped me, then went away. I understand that people wanted to help me, but I wanted to be able to deny their help. At the end of the performance the police came and thought I was the victim, so then I spoke. During that performance I didn’t want help, and same with this action, because I shouldn’t need people to help me to get into the building.

Do you think you’ll keep doing this until there’s a more direct response? How do you see it going forward?

I want to do this until something happens. I’ve won when I can enter the main entrance of the building. When that happens, I don’t want to go to another building and repeat this there. I don’t think I have the energy for all of them. Only one little step and this was my part. Right now it’s so cold, my body hurts, maybe again in March I’ll resume attempting to climb the stairs, but until then, I’ll continue being in front of the stairs. It’s the same message. The cold is not the main problem for me, but I got so many bruises that they couldn’t heal by the time I was going again. They need a lot of time to heal.

So how often will you be there? When can people come stand behind you and help you block the doors, to ask people to go around and use the side entrance?

I’ll be there every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 11am before the stairs. So every weekday except Wednesday, but it would be cool if people were there even when I’m not there, because this isn’t only for me.

UPDATE: Philipp says, “The Vice Rector has also personally clarified with his email (which I’ve printed out and posted on the front of the building) that they are actually working on a solution and it is not just empty words. I have therefore decided, cautiously optimistic, to finally re-enter the building. However, I will continue to do the performance - as a statement!”

Below is the English text of the email from the Vice Rector. Let’s hold him to it!

Dear students, dear colleague,

I would like to inform you about current developments in some areas of my responsibility: Accessibility. Let me start with the topic of accessibility in all buildings of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the AG bAS, the Disability Liaison Officers, the Disability Commissioner, the student Philipp Muerling, who has made the issue heard in the media through his public performance, and the students and colleagues who are also campaigning in various ways for equal access to the Academy's locations. Based on the exchange with the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG), the Bundesdenkmalamt (Federal Office for the Preservation of Monuments), colleagues from the Ministry and Philipp Muerling, the Rectorate has developed a three-step plan to improve accessibility at Schillerplatz: Short-term and implemented: opening the Makartgasse gate, closing the floor grooves in the entrance ramp as well as preliminary studies for a ramp at Schillerplatz, a stairlift and a new elevator near the Schillerplatz entrance. Medium-term and ongoing: commissioning of a feasibility study for an elevator at the Schillerplatz entrance by a civil engineer (statics, costs, official procedures) co-financed by BIG and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Institutes and students jointly develop a project concept for a temporary ramp installation. Implementation: after confirmation of funding and approval by the relevant authorities.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Werner Skvara

Philipp would be happy for anyone who can make it to join him and/or his colleagues in front of the main entrance of the academy until he has reached his goal, which is a goal for everyone.

You can follow Philipp on the following channels:

Instagram & program updates, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Vimeo

If you enjoyed this interview, we highly recommend you check out the newly released documentary Das Spendenproblem about why people with disabilities are demanding the abolition of Licht ins Dunkel, created by the very cool online magazine Andererseits.

PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT MONUMENTS: MAKE THE ACADEMY ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE!

An interview with Philipp Muerling