Normality in 2009 and discussion about future perspectives

Fifteen years ago, on 18 September 1993, the first Festival of Regions opened at the Linz Stadium. Since then it has developed into a major contemporary event for present-day, site-specific art and culture. On this anniversary, the festival’s board will begin with an internal discussion process of the perspectives for 2011 to 2019.

From 9 May to 1 June 2009 on the southern edge of Linz along the Traun River, and in collaboration with Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture, the Festival of Regions will be focused on the satellite town of Auwiesen and the residential complexes of solarCity. At the centre of Normality will be a temporary relocation of a part of the Linz art and culture scene to the outermost southern edges of Linz. Events in the lead-up, starting already in October 2008, will invite the public to engage with the festival’s themes.

Auwiesen, Photo: Otto Saxinger	solarCity, Photo: Otto Saxinger

Discussion of the Perspectives for the Future
During the fifteen years of its existence the Festival of Regions has made an important contribution developing the genre of site-specific art and culture away from the metropolitan centres. With a total of more than 1,500 direct participants, almost 250 projects have been realized which have left traces in 157 localities. The cultural affairs officer and Governor of Upper Austria, Dr Josef Pühringer, confirms in a statement, "The Festival of Regions represents an indispensable contribution to the cultural scene in Upper Austria. Many exemplary projects have been able to emit strong impulses and have become a model for advanced practice in the field of contemporary art and culture."

The board of the Festival of Regions is taking this anniversary and the change of directorship announced in May for the end of 2009 as an occasion for a structured discussion-process about the festival’s perspectives in the period from 2011 to 2019. Chairwoman Susanne Blaimschein comments, "Instead of looking back with satisfaction and celebrating ourselves, we are planning the future. Apart from preparations for 2009, we want to set an example for how sustainable perspectives can be developed conscientiously and in good time. We are intentionally beginning with this before the year of the Cultural Capital and almost one year before the change of directorship in order to be able to attain the necessary depth."

Normality 2009
In collaboration with Linz 09 European Capital of Culture, the Festival of Regions will remain, even in an urban environment, oriented toward present-day site-specific art and culture with a close relationship to its social environment. At his last festival in the residential complexes of Auwiesen and solarCity, and after the strong orientation toward installations at the last editions in Upper Mühlviertel (2005) and in the district Kirchdorf on the Krems (2007), the festival director, Martin Fritz, is banking on participation, performance and presence of the participants on location. Martin Fritz remarks, "We have always placed emphasis on becoming rooted locally, and this is all the more the case for the year of the Capital of Culture in Linz. How do we live? How do we want to live? are the questions that interest us for Normality. We are using the extended room for play made available through the propitious collaboration with Linz 09 for intensive preparatory work, better communication and expanded options for the program, including the curator's project."

The 2009 Festival of Regions will pitch its tents in the literal sense of the word in Auwiesen and solarCity and, with a variety of collaborative projects, will attempt to offer new ways of seeing the residential complexes in areas where the city is spreading. The director of Linz 09, Martin Heller, notes, "The Festival of Regions will be one of the important large events in the program for the Capital of Culture. Through the deployment of its proven qualities, this time within an urban environment, an exciting dynamics can unfold. I am looking forward to it."

The centrepiece of Normality is a temporary relocation of a part of Linz’s art and culture scene to the outermost southern edge of Linz and its intensive interlinking with both local and international partners. The alterative space Stadtwerkstatt and Radio FRO will open a temporary outpost in Auwiesen while, in probably the youngest suburb of Linz, the Pichling solarCity, and together with local activists from youth work, culture and music, youths will rethink, live and present youth culture in the project, Claim Your Space. Other exemplary projects such as the performance of Eine Brise (a work for 111 cyclists by the recently deceased composer, Mauricio Kagel), collaboration with the Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt in Berlin, and the live TV living-room theatre, Home Entertainer, of the German artists' group AKKU, underscore the scope of the festival’s program. The deputy mayor responsible for culture, Dr Erich Watzl, is expecting positive effects because "networking and collaboration between local scenes and international artists has an enormous potential. In this way, the 2009 Festival of Regions in Linz can contribute to rethinking many old ways of viewing the edges of the city".

Sub-project Taken Apart and Playful
In harmony with the foci of the overall program, working with performances and actions of young artists, musicians and other activists, the festival series curated by Doris Prlic, taken apart and playful, will playfully offer occasions for reinterpreting public (free) space and using it differently.

Series of lead-up events starting October 2008
The first lead-up activities have already started. Since the end of August 2008, in the framework of Claim Your Space with youths from solarCity, options for shaping recreational time and laying a claim on public space are being worked out in a series of workshops and public actions. Parallel to this, starting at the end of October, further events will invite the public to discuss the festival’s themes. The series, Local Viewing, successfully started in March, will be continued at the end of October under the title, Local Tour, as a regular festival meeting-point for all those interested. As a supplement, the established discussion series, The City’s Public Space, will spotlight the city’s margins with the participation of experts from areas such as architecture, town-planning, social history and art in public space. See dates below and at www.fdr.at

Participants (as at September 2008)
AKKU – Working with Everyday Life/ Peter Arlt, Hans Kropshofer, Georg Ritter, Die Fabrikanten / Frank Bölter / Marcelo Cardoso-Gama & Johanna Kienzl / Jakob Dietrich & Kai Maier-Rothe (bu’nostik), Reinhard Gupfinger, Anna Hilti & Stefanie Thöny & Anita Zumbühl, Clemens Mairhofer & Lucas Norer & Sebastian Six, Leo Peschta & Gordan Savičić, Doris Prlić et al./ Marlene Haring / Susanne Jirkuff / Uwe Jonas, Antonia Low, Ulrike Mohr, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Matthias Schamp, Petra Spielhagen, Roi Vaara / Karl-Heinz Klopf / Andrea Knobloch / Sabina Köfler, Kristina Kornmüller, Stefan Messner, Petra Moser, Ulrike Seelmann, Felix Vierlinger / Martin Krenn / Anna Meyer / OKIPS / Parish Centre Marcel Callo / spotsZ / Karl-Heinz Ströhle & Martin Strauß / Petar Radisavljević / Rebekka Reich & Oliver Gather / Stadtwerkstatt & Radio FRO / Streetwork Ebelsberg-Pichling /Primary School 52 solarCity & Hartlauerhof / Kaspar Wimberley & Susanne Kudielka and many more.

Dates in the lead-up period

Local Tour
Monthly festival meeting-point during the lead-up period

Wednesday, 29.10.08, 7 p.m., Café Leonardo, Lunaplatz 3, solarCity **
Wednesday, 26.11.08, 7 p.m., Café in der Tuchfabrik, Schörgenhubstraße 39, Auwiesen *
Wednesday, 17.12.08, 7 p.m., Café Pub Augarten, Rädlerweg 64, Auwiesen *
Wednesday, 28.1.09, 7 p.m., Gasthof Heuriger zum Hauermandl, Oidener Straße 98, Pichling-solarCity ****
Friday, 27.2.09, 4 p.m., Das Wirtshaus Arbeiterheim, Zeppelinstraße 29, Auwiesen-Kleinmünchen ***
Friday, 13.3.09, 4 p.m., Badebuffet Weikerlsee, little Weikerl Lake, solarCity **

The City’s Public Space
Discussion series focusing on the margins of the city — a project by Peter Arlt, Hans Kropshofer, Georg Ritter, Die Fabrikanten

Wednesday, 12.11.08, 7 p.m., Gunter Amesberger (Director of City Development, Linz), ELIA solarCity - Foyer, Pegasusweg 1-3, solarCity **
Friday, 28.11.08, 7 p.m., Michael Koch (architect and town-planner, University of Hamburg), Kleinmünchnerhof, Dauphinestraße 19, Auwiesen *
Wednesday, 3.12.08, 7 p.m., Boris Sieverts (artist, Cologne), Walk through the south of Linz, meeting-point end-stop (Line 2), solarCity **
Wednesday, 14.1.09, 7 p.m., Joachim Hainzl (social education worker and social historian, Graz), School Centre solarCity, Heliosallee 140-142, solarCity **
Wednesday, 11.2.09, 7 p.m., Michael Zinganel (architecture theorist, artist and curator, Vienna/Graz), Tornado Bowlingcenter, Karl-Steiger-Straße 3, Auwiesen *
Wednesday, 11.3.09, 7 p.m., Katharina Blaas-Pratscher (head of art in public space, Lower Austria), Volkshaus Auwiesen, Wüstenrotplatz, Auwiesen *

Meeting-points for non-locals 15 minutes before the beginning of each event
*End stop (Line 1) "Auwiesen"
**End stop (Line 2) "solarCity-Zentrum"
***Stop (Lines 1 and 2) "Simonystraße"
****Stop (Lines 11 and 19) "Oidener Straße"

Claim Your Space

Activities for youths in solarCity - a project by the Streetwork Ebelsberg-Pichling (St.E.P.) and other partners

Friday, 24.10.08, 5-7 p.m. , workshop Breakdance with Maggy (UnFUG, Linz); 7 - 8 p.m., Beatboxing with Florian Stangl (DEF-K, Linz), Youth Club solarCity, Pegasusweg 1-3
Saturday, 29.11.08, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., workshop "Making Radio - live and direct" with Radio FRO (Linz), Youth Club solarCity, Pegasusweg 1-3
Friday, 19.12.08, 17 - 20 Uhr, workshop "Art Attacks - Comics, Brands & Co." with Kare (DFD Crew, Linz) and Wilhelm Ban, Youth Club solarCity, Pegasusweg 1-3

Further dates for activities within the framework of Claim Your Space in 2009 and up-to-date information on all the events can be found on the web-site of the Festival of Regions at www.fdr.at

 

Festival der Regionen, Marktplatz 12, A-4100 Ottensheim, Tel.: 0043. 72 34.85 2 85, Fax - 4
Inquiries: TUE to THU: 9 AM - 12 AM: Thomas Kreiseder, 0043. 72 34.85 2 85 - 6, presse@fdr.at