Welcome to
“Verein Freies Plakat” (Independent Poster Association)

A not-for-profit, Verein Freies Plakat, was founded January 2008 by a group of Viennese advertising companies (members of the Advertisement and Market Communication Sections of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce). The Association was created after a company called “Gewista” – closely tied to the Austrian Social Democratic Party –had established “Kultur:Plakat GmbH” (Cultural Poster, Ltd.), a quasi-monopoly in the field of art and cultural advertising.

The aim of the Association is to counter monopolization and to ensure legal conditions that allow everyone –the providers of art and culture in particular –use of public space for advertising in accordance with Austrian law, especially Media Law (§ 48).

The Association calls for:

1. The establishment of a sufficient number of poster surfaces for advertising industry use and to guarantee entrepreneurial diversity and free market conditions in Vienna;

2. The establishment of a sufficient number of poster surfaces reserved especially for not-for-profit art and cultural organizations that cannot afford the high costs of commercial advertisement;

3. The establishment of public poster surfaces for the free and legal use of social and political initiatives and for all Viennese citizens seeking to exercise the right of free speech via printed public announcements.

Also, the Association itself exists as a public platform for free advertising and for independent art and culture.
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