Advent 08
30 November – 31 December 08
Idea / Concept: Linz09
Expectation is on the up and up. The adventure of the Capital of Culture casts its shadow over 2008. Advent and adventure become identical.
In 2008 what has traditionally been a time for waiting and reflection will be given the additional dimension of joyful anticipation of the coming of Capital of Culture Year. Linz09 defines advent as a countdown anticipating Capital of Culture Year by counting up to 31 instead of 24 and ending on New Year’s Eve, the last day of 2008.
The thrills of anticipation, of pre-premieres, of teasers: Advent08 will speak about the coming festive year. Each day will see a new highlight of the Capital of Culture programme come alive on the advent calendar at Café Centrum. The calendar? Ah, yes: The 09 Calendar will have 31 windows, and the Advent wreath will blaze with five rather than the traditional four candles. On the first Sunday the first THE HERMIT IN THE TOWER will move in at the former tower watchman’s quarters. The tower trumpeters in the steeple of Stadtpfarrkirche will also begin the duties of their Capital of Culture mission in Advent and will announce their good news everyday. Public rehearsals make it possible to get acquainted in advance with works that will be performed at the beginning of 2009 – for instance Franz Hummel’s opera FOUCHÉ. ENSEMBLE09 will also be delighted to welcome listeners at its rehearsals. The Theater des Kindes will open one window a day with a series of performances. ‘Sweeter the bells never sound’ people used to say of Advent in the old carol. Yet the seasonally adjusted constant stream of Christmas evergreens that follows us wherever we go in the time before Christmas provides for ideal conditions for the start of the AUDIBLE CITY campaign: Beschallungsfrei (Say No to compulsory acoustic irradiation!).
The event before the event
Since time immemorial the first Sunday in Advent has marked the beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year and of preparations for Christmas. Latin ‘adventus’, from which our Advent is derived, was used to translate the Greek word for ‘arrival’; subsequently it came to refer to the arrival, presence or the visit of a dignitary of some sort. In Advent, we celebrate an impending birth: Linz09 will also look forward with a great sense of joy to the birth of Capital of Culture Year and will bid it welcome.
A Linz09 project
