2014

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“‘I prefer not to … share!’ If the steirischer herbst has to borrow from Hermann Melville’s dissident Bartleby for its 2014 leitmotif then it is because we are torn—between the knowledge that we need to share more and, at the same time, need to give up more, if we want to stop the richest and poorest on the planet from drifting even further apart. We know that we need to change our ways, to do an ethical reality check of our habits as consumers and the way we think about our children’s education and career paths. And we need to ask ourselves to what extent we are prepared to accept the consequences of our political convictions, even in our everyday lives.
If we were to sum up this year’s festival, the phrase would inevitably be ‘new departures’. We are setting out—in more ways than one—increasingly testing the limits. The programme is wide-ranging and richer than ever before.”
—Veronica Kaup-Hasler (original booklet translation)

With the leitmotif I prefer not to … share!, inspired by Hermann Melville’s refusenik Bartleby, steirischer herbst ’14 looked at the vexatious topic of sharing—from relinquishing, which is the prerequisite for a more just distribution of resources in the world, to the pressure to share on social media. The festival center was at Palais Wildenstein on Paulustorgasse, which had been transformed by the young Graz-based firms Supersterz and .tmp architekten into a Fortress of Backyards. This is also where the herbst exhibition curated by Luigi Fassi and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Forms of Distancing: Repräsentative Politik und die Politik der Repräsentation (Forms of Distancing: Representative Politics and the Politics of Representation), was presented. One highlight—perhaps the highlight of the entire history of the festival—was surely the border-blurring performance All Tomorrows Parties I + II by the legendary Needcompany (Grace Ellen Barkey and Jan Lauwers) for the opening at the Helmut List Halle.

After the reorganization of the steirischer herbst team the previous year, the outward appearance was also altered in 2014. For the final four years of Veronica Kaup-Hasler’s artistic direction, concentric circles in red on white would dominate the design of the poster and the program booklet. The events were no longer subdivided into theater/performance/dance, exhibition, and music; instead, visitors were encouraged to “browse” and “find.”

Even more than in previous years, steirischer herbst fanned out beyond Graz into the entire state of Styria. This included commissioned works by Heidrun Holzfeind and Tobias Putrih in Laafeld and Bad Radkersburg, an activation of empty shops in Wildon by the artist collective machina eX, concerts by Georg Nussbaumer in Stainz, and the project One to Oneby the pianist Marino Formenti, which took place in private spaces at various locations (including Graz, Stainz, and Bad Gleichenberg) and opened up new spaces for experiencing music beyond conventional concerts. At the MUMUTH of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, the New York-based Nature Theater of Oklahoma presented the premieres of Episodes 4.5, 5, and 6 of their multipart performance project Life and Times.

Program

Festival opening

26.09., 19:30
Helmut List Halle
Grace Ellen Barkey / Jan Lauwers / Needcompany (BE)
All Tomorrow's Parties I + II