Six billboards by artist Anne Imhof were slashed in the city of Bregenz, Austria on Tuesday night, in what the German artist has called “an act of violent aggression.” The billboards featured the name of her exhibition “Wish You Were Gay,” which is currently on view at the Kunsthaus Bregenz through September 22. Local police have launched an investigation into the attack and the billboards will be replaced as soon as possible.

The museum has confirmed that the billboards were vandalized on the night of July 23. The damage was discovered the next morning by the city’s major Michael Ritsch, who labelled the act a “hate crime” that goes against Bregenz’s values of “diversity and tolerance.”

Local police said they do not yet have any definite leads, noting that the investigation is made more difficult by the fact it took place at night with no witnesses and no CCTV footage.

Anne Imhof’s billboards Wish You Were Gay were destroyed in the city of Bregenz, Austria. Photo: Angela Lamprecht.

The six billboards had been installed on the city’s busiest street Bregenz Seestrasse on June 8th, the same day that Imhof’s exhibition opened at the Kunsthaus Bregenz. Producing these public artworks has been a tradition at the museum since 1997, with artists like Jeff Koons and Jenny Holzer producing billboards to accompany their respective solo exhibitions there.

“This is a cowardly attack on art and human rights,” said the Kunsthaus Bregenz’s director Thomas D. Trummer. “Homophobia must have no place in our society.”

“It is deeply painful to look at the images and I am truly hurt,” said Imhof in a statement posted on Instagram. She added that the meaning behind the phrase Wish You Were Gay is “a love song to queer coming of age” and “a testament to the beauty and strength that the chosen family provides to hose of LGBTQIA2S+ experience.”

“This hate crime cannot take away our hope for a world free from homophobia and free from discrimination for each and every one of us,” she added.

“Wish You Were Gay” is on view at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria until September 22, 2024.