2004

steirischer herbst ’04
… There’s always a crisis …

Director
Peter Oswald

Festival dates
7.10.–7.11.2004

Curatorial team
Assistant to Director, Literature: Sabine Achleitner

Chief Dramaturge: Wolfgang Hofer

“Crisis, then, is a productive mission for steirischer herbst. For one thing because it happens as a process that often eludes planning and rational control. Crisis is unpredictable, full of tension, and elementary importance above all with regard to advanced new artistic production. Crisis is anticyclical, but also a chronic condition. Crisis is a consciousness, a reflection on difficulties, and—to paraphrase Hegel—also requires a specific consciousness.
To avoid misunderstandings right from the start, if steirischer herbst is presenting crisis as the motto of its 2004 programme, this by no means implies that the festival is in a state of crisis. Rather, it is constantly confronted with critical scenarios. The explorative festival focuses on positions in art that consciously reflects on social change and its crisis.
It deals more intimately, the, with projects that set out to form a phalanx of aesthetic and political crises in the form of premières and first-time presentations.”
“Today, crisis is more than and different to choice and decision (which is difficult not only in elections). As always in advanced art production, crisis is a productive and indispensable category. For the key questions concerning the future of society arise in our awareness of crisis.”
—Peter Oswald (original booklet translation)

The title of the steirischer herbst of 2004 was ... Krise ist immer ... (Crisis Is a Constant), although Peter Oswald emphasized in the foreword to the program booklet that what this intended to signify was not that the festival was in a crisis, but rather that it continued to investigate crisis scenarios. “As a festival that explores the present time, it examines positions that reflect the changes in society and its crises.”

The Graz Theater im Bahnhof staged Wolfgang Bauer’s Foyer, a work in which a seventy-year-old comes to the premiere of his play at the Helmut List Halle and becomes entangled in a theatrical maelstrom of riotously turbulent incidents. Other premieres were ... ce qui arrive ... (... What Happens ...) by Olga Neuwirth, after a story by Paul Auster, and junk space by Kathrin Röggla, which deals with fears and coming to terms with them.

At the Forum Stadtpark, Oliver Ressler curated an exhibition with a lecture and roundtable discussion on the topic of economics, with the suggestive subtitle: There Must Be an Alternative. The photo exhibition Bleiben oder Gehen (Stay or Go) at Camera Austria was dedicated to the topic of migration (curators: Christine Frisinghelli and Sandra Križić Roban), and the Neue Galerie presented Peter Weibel—das offene werk 1964–1979 (Peter Weibel—The Open Work, 1964–1979; curators: Günther Holler-Schuster and Peter Peer), which traced the work of the artist and curator as a “pioneer of participatory practices, open processes, and interactivity in his early years” (program booklet).

Moreover, on the occasion of the European Football Championship, there was the extensive project Third Places: Fußball, Video-Games und Musik-Clips in Graz West (Third Places: Soccer, Video Games, and Music Clips in Graz West), and the exhibition Bewegliche Teile—Formen des Kinetischen (Moving Parts—Forms of the Kinetic), in collaboration with the Museum Tinguely, Basel, at the Kunsthaus Graz. The opening was held at the Helmut List Halle, with Doron Rabinovici as speaker, a reading performance by Christian Uetz, a concert by HerrGross & das MutterOrchester, and a film screening with live soundtracks by Cameron Jamie and Keiji Haino.

Program

Scenic Art

Visual Art

Film

Literature

Music

Discursive Program

Styria

herbst on tour

Festival opening

7.10., 19:00
Opening with Doron Rabinovici (Opening Speech)
Christian Uetz (Reading Performance)
HerrGross & das MutterOrchester (Concert)
Cameron Jamie, Keiji Haino (Film Screening and Live Soundtrack)

Venues

ASKÖ Stadion, Graz

Aula Universität Klagenfurt/Celovec, Klagenfurt

Autorimessa Trentino Trasporti, Trient

Auwehr, Mürzzuschlag

Buschenschank Kolleritsch, Mureck

Camera Austria, Graz

Dom im Berg, Graz

ESC im LABOR, Graz

Filmzentrum im Rechbauerkino, Graz

Firma Innerhofer, Bruneck

Florentinersaal, Graz

Forum Stadtpark, Graz

Galerie Artelier Contemporary, Graz

Galerie Bleich-Rossi, Graz

Galerie CC, Graz

Galerie Centrum, Graz

Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz

Galerie Kunst & Handel, Graz

Galerie Kunsthaus muerz, Mürzzuschlag

Galerie Schafschetzy, Graz

Gasthaus Derwaritsch, Mureck

Gasthaus Erika, Mureck

Gasthof Holzer, Neuberg/Mürz

Grazer Kunstverein, Graz

Grazer Stadtraum, Graz

Haindlkar-Hütte, Johnsbach

Helmut List Halle, Graz

IEM Cube, Graz

Immorent-Park, Graz

Innovationspark Graz, Graz

Jugend- und Kulturzentrum House, Mureck

k3, Pischelsdorf

Kristallwerk, Graz

Kulturstadl Rachau, Rachau

Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz

Kulturzentrum Weberhaus, Weiz

kunst.wirt.schaft, Graz

Kunsthaus Graz, Graz

Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Mürzzuschlag

Kunstmagazin Hell, Bruck/Mur

Kunstraum/Kulinarium, Graz

Künstlerhaus, Graz

Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz

Literaturhaus Graz, Graz

MAK-Säulenhalle, Vienna

Medienkunstlabor, Graz

Medienturm, Graz

Minoriten-Galerien, Graz

Museum der Wahrnehmung, Graz

Museum Stift Admont, Admont

Neue Galerie Graz, Graz

Non-Stop-Kino, Graz

ORF-Landesstudio, Graz

Palais Attems, Graz

Pavelhaus / Pavlova hisa, Bad Radkersburg

Postgarage, Graz

Probebühne, Graz

Puntigam, Graz

Pädagogische Akademie, Graz

Rhizom, Graz

Scher-Halle der Böhler Bleche GmbH, Mürzzuschlag

Schloßbergrestaurant, Graz

Seifenfabrik, Graz

tazl. klassische moderne & aktuelle kunst, Graz

Veranstaltungszentrum Judenburg, Judenburg

Vorraum, Kulm bei Weiz

Werkstadt Graz, Graz

Zimmerei Reinbacher, Mürzzuschlag

Österreichischer Skulpturenpark, Unterpremstätten

Publications

Program booklet of steirischer herbst 2004: steirischer herbst Veranstaltungs GmbH, steirisc[:her:]bst (Graz: 2004)

→  Hier erhältlich

Doris Rothauer (Ed.), Third Places, Fußball, Videospiele, Musikvideos in Graz-West (Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, 2004)

→  Available here

Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective