Time is Pressing!
Copyright: Josef Gaffl
The fourth jour fixe with representatives of the free-lance art scene in Linz was held recently at Kunstraum Goethestraße. Linz09 Artistic Director Martin Heller sees this get-together as wrapping up the series of informal talks.
What sort of potential is exhibited by the independent cultural scene in Linz? What do its members have to contribute and what will their productions entail? To what extent are they capable of making their mark on the Linz09 program? These and similar questions were on the agenda Monday evening at the jour fixe discussion held at KunstRaum Goethestraße and moderated by Radio FRO’s Sandra Hochholzer.Before about 60 interested participants, Artistic Director Martin Heller particularly emphasized the internal solidarity prevailing in the free-lance scene; at the same time, he addressed the ideological barriers prevailing within it and its members’ proclivity to observation instead of action, intervention and interference. Heller’s wish-list included “hotbeds and fanatics” as manifestations of the essence of this urban culture, more vehemence in lodging demands, high-definition obsessions and a speedy decision about which direction this joint development project will be taking. Heller concluded the two-hour-plus discussion with the exhortation: “Time is pressing!”
His appearance together with Ulrich Fuchs included a Q&A session dealing with the specifics of budgeting, the preliminary project assessment process and cooperative efforts with city cultural institutions. In this connection, he made prominent reference to the Linz09 website that promptly delivers updated information having to do with these issues as soon as developments occur. Heller encouraged “small, charming project ideas” that take a position about Linz’s atmosphere and local ambience and “about tourist-related aspects too.” In response to specific questioning, both Capital of Culture year directors categorically rejected providing support for municipal initiatives such as LinzExPort and LinzImPuls. They also stated that an effort by Linz09 to force a change of course in the city’s policymaking and administration in cultural affairs is absolutely out of the question.
Immediately following the discussion, Martin Heller and Ulrich Fuchs once again criticized the acute shortage of appropriate, culturally functional exhibition and event venues in a city the size of Linz, which they portrayed as a looming problem of massive proportions during the Capital of Culture year.
