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Still from documentation of an action to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
* 09.11.09
On 09.11.09 we performed and released video documentation of an action to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was the first public instalment of a series of spontaneous interventions and experimental projects that we are currently working on during our residency in Linz.
Click here for further information and to view the video online.
Added: 18.11.09
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Detail from Remembering, an installation made from 9,000 childrens' rucksacks and covering the facade of the Haus de Kunst, Munich.
* Ai Weiwei
Renegade Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who was recently brutally beaten by police in Sichuan, China following his inquiry in to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake is now in Munich, Germany where he has recently had two holes drilled in to his skull to remove fluid from around his brain due to his injuries inflicted by the police. It is estimated that more than 70,000 people died in the earthquake, largely due to poor building work linked to corruption. In some cases, schools crumbled while nearby buildings stood firm. Ai has attempted to compile a list of names of the children who died in the earthquake which he published on his blog, but which has subsequently been repeatedly removed from the internet by the Chinese Government along with his website.
Although still recovering from his surgery in Munich, Ai currently has a large solo exhibition in the city at the Haus de Kunst, the former municipal art museum of the Nazi party in Bavaria. The work pictured above represents the children lost in the Sichuan earthquake, spelling out with 9,000 children’s rucksacks a quote from one of the victim’s mothers: ‘She lived happily in this world for seven years.’
Added: 16.11.09
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Occupation of the main lecture hall at the University of Linz, midnight 05/11/09, with the author Robert Menasse as guest speaker.
* The University Burns!
Last Tuesday, 20th October 2009, students launched an occupation of the University of Fine Arts in Vienna to protest about tuition fees, under-funding and corporatisation in Austrian universities. The protests have escalated rapidly in a week, with the movement spreading to every Austrian university and now across Germany, as part of a wave of student activism opposing the Bologna Process, a neoliberalising strategy of education reform which aims to standardise and harmonise University structures across Europe.
In Vienna, the students have organised into a formal collective, inhabiting the university’s main lecture hall to host a programme of public discussions and workshops and to formalise their demands. On Thursday, thirty thousand students marched in the city to show their continued solidarity, and social, political and cultural organisations from around the country have also been releasing statements in support of the students.
The introduction of UK-style Bachelor and Masters programmes could have serious implications not only for the Austrian art school system but for the wider art community. Under the current system, most students study for at least six years, beginning with a two-year period of intensive BA-style study which then develops into an extended period of professional practice within and outside of the art school. This system both produces and supports a community of young artists who, like their lecturers, are engaged in both local / public and academic contexts - learning, reading and writing whilst also exhibiting nationally and internationally or running their own art initiatives.
Click play to view live video stream from the occupied lecture hall in Vienna. Images, talks, gigs and video from each occupied university are broadcast live on the internet and shared between universities creating a sense of solidarity between the students internationally.
Added: 02.11.09
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Spot the difference. FPÖ 2009 election campaign poster, reads: The homeland in our Hands. Dr. Manfred Haimbuchner. For the sake of the homeland.
* Fascism and the European Capital of Culture
In Austria, as in the UK and much of Europe there has been a recent increase in fascist activity and in popular support for far right political parties. In the Austrian 2008 national legislative election, two far-right parties, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) gained a 28% share of the vote making them the third and fourth national parties respectively.
During Linz 09 there has been a multitude of projects that have aimed to deal with Austria’s Nazi history. In January 2009 Ulrich Fuchs, the deputy manager of the 2009 events, said: "Whenever you come to Linz in the coming year, you will find something related to this topic. We are not sweeping Hitler under the carpet." Martin Heller, the artistic director of Linz 2009, said there is an "obligation to tackle the city's Nazi history… We want to reflect back and show how cultural and political ambitions went together in the Nazi time… Talking about culture always means talking about politics."
However, there have been no Linz 09 projects aimed at confronting the contemporary fascist situation which has been conspicuously ‘swept under the carpet’. Instead, the organisers have addressed a comparatively 'safe' and resolved fascist history, utilising the contentious story as an edgy and morbidly fascinating subject matter - a ‘unique selling point’ for their festival.
Added: 01.11.09
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The industrial area of Linz accounts for about a third of the city, totalling over 100km sq. Embarrassment over high levels of pollution has given rise over the last decade to political strategies aimed at addressing this negative reputation. Capital of Culture status is a major signifier of the city’s efforts to rebrand itself from industrial to cultural, a strategy that has created a clinical and controlled atmosphere in the non-industrial parts of the city.
* The 'Free Scene' in Linz
Independent and autonomous art venues in Austria are called ‘off spaces’; organisations such as these make up what is known as the ‘free scene’ and function as the backbone of the art, music, social and grass-roots political movements in Austrian cities. Our early research has revealed to us a multitude of these organisations operating in Linz, often across disciplines and internationally from an ostensibly local footing. Whilst these are the Austrian equivalent of the artist-run space they are noticeably more sophisticated than their British counterparts, not only in their internal structures but also outwardly as part of a wider, organised local infrastructure.
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Kapu, a music venue run collectively and on a voluntary basis through weekly meetings has developed over 25 years into somewhat of an institution in Linz but by maintaining its critical integrity has done so without becoming institutionalised. For Linz09 Kapu have been making their opposition known by staging Aussitzen, a year-long protest to the Capital of Culture that invites non-participation by ‘sitting out’. |
Added: 22.10.09
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The annual peaceful Mayday demo in Linz was brutally broken up in 2009 (the city's year as European Capital of Culture) by the police who used tear gas, kettling tactics and violence to prevent the crowd from marching against Austria's neo-Nazi NVP (Nationalist People’s Party).
* Atelierhaus Salzamt
The Atelierhaus Salzamt is an international artist residency space hosting up to five international artists alongside seven local artists, selected and endorsed by Linz 09. Originally a salt storage warehouse, from 2002 it was used by local artists as a free studio space and print workshop until their eviction from the building in August 2005. Shortly after this the city of Linz bought the building at a reduced price, commencing a 4 million euro facelift which would see the Salzamt re-launched in time for the Capital of Culture year as a slick international cultural centre.
As artists selected for the Salzamt’s residency programme, we feel uneasy about what we have uncovered regarding the building’s recent history and the displacement that has occurred, whereby a self-organised group of local artists has been substituted for us as ‘international artists’. We also find the organisation to be lacking in resources and direction which leads us to suspect that the city of Linz’s motivation in acquiring the Salzamt lay primarily in developing a now highly valuable piece of real estate on the banks of the Danube. For people familiar with the NOVAS centre in Liverpool (formerly used for DIY art projects and exhibitions such as Museum Man) comparisons can easily be drawn in terms of the use of culture to legitimise the commercial activities of arts charities and the public sector and the displacement of grassroots art initiatives that occurs when cities adopt culturally-driven urban renewal strategies.
Added: 14.10.09
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Studio space at Atelierhaus Salzamt
* Urban Interventions: Artistic Perspectives (UIAP) Residency Programme
UIAP is a one-off project that aims at inviting artists from Europe to explore various urban landscapes in different cities. It creates, within the framework of artist residency programmes and activities, a platform for interaction and exchange both on a local level, as well as within a broader, inter-regional spectrum. The project includes artists from five cities representing different European countries (Liverpool-UK, Dortmund-GE, Tallinn-EE, Istanbul-TR, And Linz-AT), developing urban art projects within the span of 3 to 6 month residencies at one of the project partner cities.
Added: 12.10.09
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| Related links: Information about the Salzamt - roughly translated |
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