A programme of events leading up to the Capital of Culture year has been running since 2007, and this lineup will be continuing in 2008. In late May, we’ll be carrying on our collaboration with the OK Center for Contemporary Art: following last year’s “Schaurausch – Viewing Spree” is “Tiefenrausch – Rapture of the Deep,” an exhibition in public spaces that will take visitors to underground sites in Linz including tunnels, cellars and cisterns. Hubert von Goisern will be westbound on the second leg of the Linz Europa Tour; from Upper Austria, he’ll be travelling the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal all the way to Rotterdam. The first run of the “Linz Texas. A City Relates” exhibition will run from June to September 2008 in Architekturzentrum Vienna; in Fall 2008, it will move to Stadtmuseum Graz. It showcases commonalities and typical Linzer qualities and characteristics in a global comparison with other cities. Also coming up in the Summer of 2008 is the “Academy of the Impossible”—people with a passion for the theatre will be able to deepen their knowledge and skills in the performing arts in courses and workshops being offered under the supervision of international theatrical producer/director David Maayan. Linz has also set lofty goals in the musical-acoustic field: Linz is to become Europe’s model acoustic city. Linz09 will be taking this as an occasion to raise acoustic consciousness: “Audible City” will illustrate exemplary ways and means to enhance Linz’s acoustic development. The first “Hermit in the Tower” will be moving into his quarters in the Mariendom Cathedral in early December. By then, Linz’s guests will have been enjoying interesting accommodations in “Pixelhotel” for months already.
In contrast to most of the other cities that have served as European Capital of Culture in recent years, Linz will be launching its 2009 tenure ASAP with a three-day festival beginning on New Year’s Eve. The whole city including cultural facilities, restaurants and bars will join in on this gala celebration. At midnight, the Capital of Culture year will be greeted with grand-scale pyrotechnics above the Danube accompanied by several musical surprises. The riverside parks and plazas adjacent to the new Ars Electronica Center, the Nibelungen Bridge, the Lentos Kunstmuseum and the Brucknerhaus will be the perfect sites on which to experience this vibrant multi-hued spectacle.
The Brucknerhaus will be hosting its traditional New Year’s concert. And the Lentos Kunstmuseum also has something very special in store: the “Best of Austria” exhibition will showcase an extensive collection of exceptionally superb works of Austrian art.
On the second day of the Capital of Culture year 2009, the new Ars Electronica Center will be open to the public. And on this day, Linz09 will also be fanning out into all of Linz’s neighbourhoods so that the feeling of what it means to be Europe’s Capital of Culture for a year can really take root and flourish all around town.
Cooperative efforts with cultural institutions from the city and the province, with pre-existing regional festivals, and with educational institutions, associations and members of the local indie art and culture scene are making it possible to stage a wide array of exhibitions, projects, ideas and concepts for Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture.
Linz’s past is a central theme in our city’s programme. “The Cultural Capital of the Führer” will be staged in Fall 2008 in cooperation with the Museums of the Province of Upper Austria and curated by historical scholars and art historians. This exhibition deals with National Socialist cultural policies, cultural life in the region, and with Linz’s Nazi past.
A sharp contrast is provided by the contemporary political situation. 2009 is an election year, and foreign election observers will be monitoring the proceedings. “Democracy is Culture!” is scheduled for performance immediately after the election; in it, these observers will present an emotional drama that comments on the campaign and the candidates.
Readings, exhibitions, literary events, theme evenings and festivals as well as symposia and writing workshops make up the literary lineup in the Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture programme. In conjunction with “Linz Reads Vilnius,” translator Cornelius Hell will present outstanding Lithuanian literature in the StifterHaus and, in doing so, draw some interesting conclusions about the cultural situation in Linz’s co-capital Vilnius and that city’s openness and traditions. “‘Round About Linz,” writing workshops that will be held at a number of locations including Vilnius and Linz, will offer students and teachers the opportunity to do some experimental writing themselves and to go one-on-one with some masters of this art.
“Culture Capital Becomes School Capital!” Extraordinarily talented local, national and international artists will be coming to Linz and Upper Austria to take part in a Linz09 school project of major dimensions. They’ll be doing creative work in many areas of the performing arts with students and teachers in different grades and types of schools.
Linz09 is hosting a conclave of contemporary masters of shadow theatre and puppetry at the “Doppelgänger” festival. And then there’s “That’s the Way to do it!”, a rock ‘em, sock ‘em celebration of that quarrelsome, anarchistic, cheeky little headbanger of the theatrical world—in Austria he’s called Kasperl, Pulcinella in Italy, Mr. Punch in England, Vitéz Lázló in Hungary, Guignol in France, Don Cristobal in Spain, and Petruschka in Russia.
While Flemish director Luk Perceval joins Linz tourist guides in a search for untold stories in the tunnels that make up Linz’s “hidden underground city,” locals and visitors alike can spend the dog days cooling off on the banks of the Danube from Dürnberg to the sandy Ottensheimer “Lido” doing a bit of Kulturbaden—that is, camping out overnight and enjoying experiences with, on, alongside and in the great river itself. Here, nature will become a setting for culture, and areas cultivated by man will serve as open-air venues.
As the summer winds down, the new AEC – Ars Electronica Center, a Linz09 cooperating partner, will be serving as base station for a virtual telematic project entitled “80+1. A Global Voyage”. Here, Linz will be part of a process of artistic exchange involving images, interviews, sounds and interventions. The focus will be on 20 locations, themes and people all over the world of decisive importance to our future. The three-day “Subversive Fair” will also be traversing boundaries—in the fields of fashion, design, architecture and actionist art. Artists from many different countries will be showcasing a broad spectrum of their work as well as creative products, strategies and methods that undermine forms of dominance and power in society.
We will continue to develop, intensify and refine the programme for Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture up until November 2008, when we’ll release Programme Book 3/3, the final version of the lineup.
Linz 2009 Kulturhauptstadt Europas Organisations GmbH is subsidized by the City of Linz (20 million euros), the Province of Upper Austria (20 million euros) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture (20 million euros). The European Union has issued a declaration of intent to contribute 1.5 million euros. Linz09 is also counting on contributions from private-sector associates and sponsors. Topping the list of Linz09 Top Club partners are voestalpine AG, ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company and ÖBB – Austrian Federal Railways. Linz09 is looking forward to even more widespread and enthusiastic support for this once-in-a-lifetime undertaking from throughout the local and regional economy.
