2015

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“‘Back to the Future’: steirischer herbst 2015 takes a hard look both back and forward. The fact that the future can prove dangerous without a profound analysis of the present and the past, is made evident by a whole array of science-fiction and time-travel films such as ‘Metropolis’, ‘Terminator’ and ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy. Their futuristic and utopian film aesthetic cuts to the core of our modern reality of life with terrifying precision. However our cars aren’t lifting off the ground just yet, as US director Robert Zemeckis predicted in 1985. Instead, former visions of a menacing future have become part and parcel of our everyday lives.”
“Steirischer herbst playfully picks up on this idea, focusing in many different ways on the notion of ‘inheritance’—our present is yesterdays future. This not only involves reaching far back into the retro worlds of pop culture. Rather, current discussions concerning common cultural heritage—based on whatever definition—have long since become part of a discourse on the traditional values of western society in its dialogue with communities that work differently. What do er inherit and how do we handle this inheritance? What do we archive and what do we pass on to future generations? What must we say goodbye to? What criteria do we apply to the priorities of the future? What will today’s generation will be able to leave to their children? All of these questions crop up in different forms at steirischer herbst, reflected in a wide variety of forms within the programme.”
—Veronica Kaup-Hasler (original booklet translation)

steirischer herbst ’15 opened with the installation-based concert performance Specter of the Gardenia oder Der Tag wird kommen (Specter of the Gardenia or the Day Will Come) by Johannes Maria Staud and Josef Winkler at the Helmut List Halle. Under the leitmotif Back to the Future: Relikte, Spuren und andere Hinterlassenschaften (Back to the Future: Remains, Traces, and Other Testimonies), the festival took up the notion of heritage and inheritance with a playful allusion to the science fiction classic of the same name: “Our present is the yesterday’s future.”

The festival center was staged by the Italian architecture collective orrizontale as a retro-futuristic space station in the interior courtyard of the Graz Museum. The herbst exhibition, Hall of Half-Life (curated by Tessa Giblin), sketched an “archeology of the future” in the festival center with installations by artists such as Lara Almarcegui, Geoffrey Farmer, and Peter Galison. Joachim Hainzl’s private collection Recycled History and Gerard Byrne’s film Bright Sign, a commissioned work, were also presented there.

In addition, steirischer herbst also further developed its presence outside of Graz: the Austrian artist collective Fourdummies drove the herbst vehicle around the countryside and collected visions of the future from residents and festival visitors in Graz, Leoben, and Vordernberg.

The premieres and first performances in Graz included 7 Pleasures by Mette Ingvartsen, Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Band 1 & 2 (Adolf Hitler: My Struggle, Volumes 1 & 2) by Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug, Daniel Wetzel), Black Moonshineby Theater im Bahnhof, Episodes 7, 8, and 9 of Life and Times by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Golden Hours (As You Like It).

Program