Georg Paul Thomann
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Art group monochrom represented the Republic of Austria at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo (Brazil) in 2002 by creating the fictional artist Georg P. Thomann. Through the implementation of this ironic mechanism - even the catalogue includes the biography of the non-existent artist - the group solved with pure fiction the philosophical and bureaucratic dilemma usually attached to the system of representation.
An interesting story related to Georg Paul Thomann took place at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial. The artist Chien-Chi Chang was invited as the representative of Taiwan, but the country's name was removed by the administration from his cube over night and replaced by "Museum of Fine Arts Taipei." As the members of monochrom found out, China had threatened to retreat from the Biennial and to cause massive diplomatic problems ("One-China Policy"). Chang's open letter remained unanswered. monochrom's art avatar invited artists from several countries to a solidarity action to take down adhesive letters from their countries' name tags and hand them over to Chang that he could remount "Taiwan" outside his room. monochrom wanted to show that artists do not necessarily have to internalize the fragmentation and isolation, which is imposed by the structure of the art market, the exhibition scene and the respective economy as a society-controlling imperative. Several Asian newspapers reported about the performance. One Taiwanese newspaper headlined: "Austrian artist Georg Paul Thomann saves 'Taiwan'".
In 2005 monochrom released a press info that "Austrian artist and writer Prof. Georg Paul Thomann died in a tragic accident at the tender age of 60". On July 29, 2005 they staged his funeral in Hall in Tirol. Thomann's gravesite remains in Hall. Georg Paul Thomann's tombstone shows an engraved URL of the Thomann project page.
Georg Paul Thomann is featured in RE/Search's "Pranks 2" book.
