1998

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“With the ‘Art and global media’ project, steirischer herbst leaves the spaces traditionally assigned to (visual) art—the museum and the gallery. Artistic works are no longer presented to the contemplative visitor to an exhibition, they are only revealed to the distracted reader/viewer sporadically, suddenly and within the context of the context of the specific medium as an intervention."
"The critical approach of this ‘experiment set-up’ through the modes of operation of the media is that it examines both artistically and scientifically the social structures being changed by global economy and global mass media, the emergence of new social communication, new forms of centralisation and new economic powers.
But despite the fact of its live performance, despite the pre-defined institutional framework, theatre, too, takes place within the context of the production and reception conditions set out and shaped by the media and entertainment industry.”
—Christine Frisinghelli (original booklet translation)

steirischer herbst ’98 opened on the Kasematten stage on the Schloßberg with Farben Fetzen Musik: Eine Schwabhommage (Colors Scraps Music: A Schwab Homage) by Jennifer Minetti. In her foreword to the program booklet, Christine Frisinghelli reacted to the defaming and scandalizing of contemporary art by the Austrian press that had occurred in the preceding weeks, which made “hostility to art into a culture.” Numerous works and projects that were created especially for the festival thus dealt with the media in a critical way.

Christoph Schlingensief’s performance 7 Days of Disposal for Graz—Artists against Human Rights (Chance 2000 for Graz) made use of the mechanisms of “Mediendemokratiekunst” (media-democracy-art) in an intentionally subversive way: the announcement that he wanted to “bring as many homeless people as possible to Graz” triggered outrage in the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in Graz—whose indignant letter of protest provided the text for the program booklet in a timely manner. Peter Weibel’s project Kunst und globale Medien (Art and Global Media) left the traditional domains of art such as museums and galleries behind, making artistic works become visible as interventions. This occurred in isolation, unexpectedly, and in the context of the respective medium—daily newspapers, billboards, electronic media, and the internet—rather than “making them available for contemplation” to exhibition visitors (program booklet). The Ausstellung über Medien in Medien (Exhibition on Media in Media) was accompanied by a symposium and a film program.

1998 was also the year that steirischer herbst went online with its first website. The special relationship between Cologne and Graz also became apparent once again: the project Spex präsentiert: 4 Plattenläden für Graz & Musik aus Köln im Reininghaus (Spex Presents: Four Record Stores for Graz and Music from Cologne at the Reininghaus) focused on the importance of local countercultures.

Program