1994

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“F.M. Dostoyevsky, Hugo Ball, Vilém Flusser and the observation of new dadaistic trends in art are the focus and at the same time in the background of the programme for this year’s steirischer herbst: within the framework of the series of themes which began in 1990 entitled ‘Nomadology of the Nineties’, we are attempting to trace the nomadic strategy of art after the end of avant-gardism within the polarization of the opposing terms EXPERIENCE AND INNOCENCE. However, this nomadism deals only secondarily with the worldwide movements of seeking refuge; on the contrary, what this means for us is the demand for intellectual mobility, for true interdisciplinarism, for a ‘notarizing sensibility’ (Peter Strasser), which, on the one hand, addresses those dimensions of art relevant to business; on the other hand, which is directed against the either-or-fixation of seemingly disparate disciplines in art, science, technology.”
—Horst Gerhard Haberl (original booklet translation)

In his foreword to the program booklet for 1994, Horst Gerhard Haberl compared steirischer herbst, which, this year, negated the guiding theme of Erfahrung und Unschuld (Experience and Innocence) with Magritte’s pipe: “A festival that already negates its existence in its subtitle. Perhaps a Dadaist approach. But more of a survival strategy.” Haberl argued that there was little room for a “low-budget enterprise” to maneuver “on the periphery of festivalized mega-events.”

The poster, which Haberl designed himself, shows a triangle with raised hands, a warning against “threats resulting from weapons.” The question of a new, dialogic, and political modernity that reacts to the ecological and economic “risk(-related) problems” of the 1990s was what steirischer herbst ’94 wanted to pose in its symposia (including one on Vilém Flusser, who died in 1991), exhibition projects, literature and film workshops, and particularly in its commissioned works. They included premieres of Beat Furrer’s musical theater piece Narcissus and Tomaž Pandur’s theater project Russische Mission (Russian Mission), which “spanned an arc between the lived irrationalisms of a Dostoyevsky and a Hugo Ball” and opened the festival at the Schauspielhaus (program booklet).

The exhibitions Spielverderber (Spoilsport; concept: Elisabeth Fiedler), with works by Cosima von Bonin, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Chéri Samba, Jörg Schlick, Peter Weibel, and others, and Das Archiv (The Archive; concept: Christine Frisinghelli), held in conjunction with the Symposium on Photography XV, were shown at the Forum Stadtpark. The ambulatory art project 100 Umkleidekabinen (100 Changing Cubicles; curators: Paolo Bianchi and Martin Janda) took place at the landmarked, decommissioned open-air swimming pool Bad zur Sonne.

Program