Tel Aviv-Yafo and „Tel Aviv-Yafo 100“ visiting Linz
%20(1)_c_Stadtkommunikation_k.jpg.565668.jpg "Tel Aviv-Yafo visiting Linz")
Franz Dobusch (Mayor of Linz), Ron Huldai (Mayor Tel Aviv-Yafo)
Copyright: Stadtkommunikation Linz
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Press conference
17 August 2009
Collaboration between Tel Aviv-Yafo and Linz09 began in earnest in November 2008 with a press conference in Israel, where, with support from the Cultural Affairs Department of the Austrian embassy, Linz09 presented a number of its projects, including those that are focused on the Upper Austrian capital and its role in contemporary history. A great deal of emphasis in Linz09’s overall programme is put on the Nazi period, when today’s Culture Capital, surrounded as it was at the time by a ring of extermination camps (Mauthausen, Gusen, Ebensee and Hartheim), was hyped as a “Führerstadt”. Linz09 does not in any way wish to lay claim to have reinvented the idea of coming to terms with history. What we want to do is to develop new types of narrative that will enable us to reach out both to the local population and to audiences from all over Europe.
A considerable number of project authors and artists who have contributed to the programme of Linz09 are Israelis. The Israeli director David Maayan was responsible both for the “Academy of the Impossible” and the “Purimspil”. The film director Micha Shagrir, a Linzer by birth, presented his project “Upper Austrians Without Borders” at the press conference in Tel Aviv-Yafo. Shagrir’s film was first shown at the Crossing Europe Festival 2009 in Linz and will be shown again on 30 August 2009 at the Heimatfilmfestival in Freistadt and at Kinopremiere on 31 August 2009 at the Moviemento in Linz, this time in the presence of the director. The exhibition “Die Bibliothek der geretteten Erinnerungen”, which
will open on 26 October 2009 at the Wissensturm, was developed by Ed Serotta and Centropa and was likewise first announced at the Tel Aviv-Yafo press conference.
The director of “Tel Aviv-Yafo 100”, Hila Oren, and Eytan Schwartz, who is in charge of International Affairs at the municipality, made use of the opportunity provided by the press conference in Tel Aviv to invite the Deputy Artistic Director of Linz09, Ulrich Fuchs, to the Opening Gala of “Tel Aviv-Yafo 100”.
In the wake of the opening of “Tel Aviv-Yafo 100” in April 2009, a conference was staged on “Sustainable Development”, at which Ulrich Fuchs presented the project Linz09 to an international audience. This contributed significantly to the exchange of information between Linz09 and “Tel Aviv-Yafo 100” gaining in momentum.
A particular highlight was the participation of an Israeli-Palestinian youth soccer team at the YES09 Youth Soccer Cup in early June.
At the moment, Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, his advisor on international affairs, Ben Ami Ehrlich, the director of “Tel Aviv-Yafo 100”, Hila Oren, and the Tel Aviv official in charge of International Relations, Eytan Schwartz, are in Linz on a visit from 15-17 August 2009.
In the company of the artistic directors of Linz09, they visited among other things the Ars Electronica Center, the exhibition “Höhenrausch” and the “Akustikon”. During a guided tour of the city they formed a first impression of the projects “In Situ” and “Unter Uns”. They were also present at the premiere of Luk Perceval’s film “Die verborgene Stadt” [The Hidden City].
The president of the Austrian National Assembly, Barbara Prammer, invited the guests from Tel Aviv-Yafo and the artistic directors of Linz09 to dinner at the Pöstlingberg-Schlössl, and the mayor of the City of Linz, Franz Dobrusch, put on a reception in honour of the delegation at the Altes Rathaus before they departed for their twin city Vienna.
