Carpet (after Erna Lederer), 2012
handwoven carpet, wool, 230 x 420 cm

The carpet visible in the photograph of "the great hall" was designed by the painter Erna Lederer, Schwadron's first wife. According to Schwadron's description in the article, it was handwoven in white, grey and brown wool. For the exhibition the carpet was reproduced following the logic of the black and white photograph in white, grey and a dark (brownish) grey. During the exhibition this carpet was lying as a fictitious artefact exacty five floors below its original position in Schwadron's penthouse apartment, 82 years after its photographs were published.

The carpet raises questions concerning the whereabouts of the furnishings of the apartment Schwadron left in 1938. (The Vienna Gestapo seized the entire property on January 24, 1941.) Did Schwadron sell or give away the furniture and carpets before his escape, did he ship them to the USA, or did he leave them behind?