Susanne Kudielka / Kaspar Wimberley
Masterplan

It is a grandstand that draws attention to the Forum – but at the same time the festival centre architecture is a balcony protruding out into the park, opening up a panoramic view of Platz der Menschenrechte with its wide variety of visitors: Sunday strollers, homeless people, punks, school kids, tourists and passers-by taking a short-cut become actors on a stage.

The artists Kudielka and Wimberley created a frame for our gaze, searching for patterns in the everyday sequences of action that unfold around the park’s fountain: does the woman with the yellow bag come here every day? Is her bag always full? Who does the dog belong to that is always standing next to the fountain at midday? Didn’t the cyclist in the racing kit come from the other direction yesterday?

In the first festival week the results of this field research could be compared with your own observations.

During a closing event at the end of the week, Susanne Kudielka and Kaspar Wimberley revealed a trick that they used for their “Masterplan”: the everyday activities around the Stadtpark fountain that they had supposedly been researching were in fact staged. In truth, the 118 adults, 5 youths, 6 children, 9 babies and 8 dogs made up what was perhaps the biggest ensemble at this year’s steirischer herbst: all of them are visitors to Stadtpark who agreed with the artists to ‘perform’ their everyday activities at certain times and with certain props. The contracts concluded with the actors, along with photos of the participants, are on show on the first floor of the festival centre until the end of steirischer herbst 2010. There is a catalogue documenting the project.

Konzept / Idee: Susanne Kudielka
Konzept / Idee: Kaspar Wimberley