1991

←

→

“The art of discovery is an act thanks to which the truth (i.e. the theoretical view of ideas) is being pulled out from under the blanket of oblivion, it is the act of giving birth.”
— Vilém Flusser

“This year’s steirischer herbst is entitled COVERDISCOVER. It focuses on the phenomena associated with ‘visibilisation’—and its prevention—of things or objects, be it consciously or unconsciously, willfully or accidentally achieved. It deals with the interplay between thing and no-thing, with the discovery of non-places so long covered and not yet experienced. …
The term counter-events might serve to embrace this programme. Because all participating artists perform counter-movements, insofar as they take advantage of the rampant joy of watching and prepare the way for a new quality of the ‘other inside’, the quality of being re-experienced.”
—Horst Gerhard Haberl (original booklet translations)

Entdecken Verdecken (Cover Discover) was the title of steirischer herbst ’91, which, according to the program booklet, was to delve into the “phenomena relating to the conscious, unconscious, desired, or impeded visualization of things and objects, the interplay between thing and non-thing, and discovering concealed non-places in the hitherto not yet experienced.” Part of the festival concept was a focus on “nodes of existential topics,” which were also taken up in the three annual steirischer herbst publications.

These included the series Bis unter die Haut (Under the Skin) which, under the direction of Brigitte Fürle as “No Made Theatre,” addressed the radical body language of expressive or muted bodies, with the Catalonian action theater group La Fura dels Baus and its spectacular production Noun at the Waagner-Biró-Halle. The premieres included the multimedia dance piece Cumulus by GANG ART and kallas & kennedy by MINIMAL CLUB.

While musikprotokoll ’91 was dedicated to the topic Nacht (Night), the exhibition Sinneswerkzeug—Kunst als Instrument (Sensory Tool—Art as an Instrument) took visitors into zones of rediscovered or newly repressed perceptual spaces, and the Literature Symposium took up trains of thought by Botho Strauß with Treiber und Wächter (Driving Forces and Custodians). After the official segment at the decommissioned Thalia cinema, the opening culminated with the premiere of Botho Strauß’s play Angelas Kleider (Angela’s Clothes) at the Schauspielhaus, which was staged by the young German star director Leander Haußmann.

Program