2004

Gerhild Steinbuch, Nach dem glücklichen Tag (2004), play, directed by Matthias Fontheim, mit Natascha Shah, Probebühne, Graz, 2004, photo: Peter Manninger

Ökonomie: There Must Be an Alternative, exhibition view, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, 2004, photo: Multimediale Sammlungen / N. Lackner

Third Places: Fußball, Video-Games und Musik-Clips in Graz West, project view, ASKÖ Stadion Graz-Eggenberg, 2004, photo: A. T. Schaefer

Kathrin Röggla, junk space (2004), play, directed by Tina Lanik, with Christoph Rath and Joanna Kitzl, Kristallwerk, Graz, 2004, photo: Peter Manninger

Wolfgang Bauer, Foyer (2004), play, directed by Monika Klengel and Pia Hierzegger, with Lorenz Kabas and Rupert M. Lehofer, Helmut List Halle, Graz, 2004, photo: A.T. Schaefer
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
Bleiben oder gehen / Staying or leaving
68 - künstler.legenden.fotografien
Große Spirale / Hommage to New York
(Inter)nationale Positionen der Skulptur
Ein repräsentativer Querschnitt durch sein Schaffen
Polenta magenta - Die Kukuruz-Tangente
Antechamber - vor der Scheidung
Gelungene und weniger gelungene Tage
Minimundus - historische elektronische Werke im Kleinformat
Film
Literature
Music
medienturm: art & theory transfer
Übertragung - transfer/ence: Buchpräsentation und Diskussionen
Discursive Program
Styria
Präsentation außervisuell wahrnehmbarer Skulpturen
Malerei anders. Keine schiachen Bilder
Queens - nachzeigen und stimmen zeichnen
Knödel, Krise, Kukuruz ... Wirtshaus Mureck
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