Radio Feature
ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) 2001

Numerous adoptions and rebroadcasts by German broadcasting stations
Nominated for the Prix Europa

50 Min. 30 Sec.

People always talk about “genius and madness,” and it is clear that by “madness” they mean “genius.” In reality it is not the geniuses who are in danger of going mad, because they can always reach safety by dint of their capabilities. No matter how great their suffering, they can rely upon their genius. The ones who are really condemned are those who live together with the genius and, in extreme hardship become aware of their own inferiority.

(Flora’s Diary)

From the age of twelve, Flora S. dreamed of Liebestod, love-death. At that time, however, she did not yet know with whom she would consummate it. That changed when, after years of obsessive infatuation with Alfred Hrdlicka, she became his lover. Her passion for the artist, thirty-three years her senior, developed into murderous bondage. She was there for him twenty-four hours a day if he required it, his devoted slave, boundless in her violent jealousy. She gave up her acting career and lived only for him. Not only as his lover, but also as his secretary, chauffeur, and personal assistant.

I’m responsible for your archive, for your bookkeeping, for your transportation, maybe even for occasional edifying discussions about art or things like that, and then for the hours we spend between ourselves in the Prater studio, and for nothing else!!! I don’t want to know any details of the rest of your life, I just want to be where my existence is not questioned. I wish you would you finally realize that and stop trying to take my peace of mind away from me. No matter how much I owe to you and my life together with you, that does not give you right to play games with my life, only for the sake of being reassured: Aha, she does love me after all! Ha ha, aren’t I great? (an unsent letter from her posthumous papers)

Flora’s personal tragedy – not being significant enough – is revealed in the pictures and writings that she kept hidden from Alfred Hrdlicka to be a fateful error. She was a woman of many talents, with wit, charm, intelligence. A remarkable personality and a versatile artist. Flora S. took her own life on January 26, 1999. She was 37 years old.

Translation Geoffrey C. Howes