The Programme of Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture
Press Conference
Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 18 p.m.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 10 a.m
No Austrian city has changed as dramatically as Linz has in recent years. Once a nice, quiet commercial town on the banks of the Danube, then the place that Adolf Hitler adopted as his hometown, and later a capital of heavy industry with all the side-effects and risks that entails, Linz today is a modern urban center with a flourishing economy and exceptional quality of life. A city where interesting things are happening and the future is taking shape right now. The mission of Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture is to be a part of this process: an initiative implementing sustainable urban development and a driving force for progress in promising directions.
With its lineup of projects, Linz09 is giving a highly diversified narrative account of this city: Linz Welcome, Linz Capital, Linz Power, Linz Travel, Linz World, Linz Memory, Linz Knowledge, Linz Pleasure, Linz Holiday and Linz Dream. Past, present and future are reflected by the diverse facets of this ensemble. Europe and The World are two additional programmatic focal points meant to enable people to really feel the openness of this city.
Official Grand Opening at the Turn of the Year
Elements of the Capital of Culture’s program have been in the works ever since 2007. The Capital of Culture year will officially kick off on New Year’s Eve from December 31, 2008 until January 1, 2009. The absolute highlight of Opening09 will be the world premiere of the Rocket Symphony, a work for a chorus of several hundred singers and 16 soloists arrayed along the banks of the Danube between the Ars Electronica Center, the Nibelungen Bridge, the Lentos Museum of Modern Art and the Brucknerhaus. Their acoustic and visual accompaniment will be a fireworks extravaganza.
New Year’s Day features the vernissage of Best of Austria, an exhibition that brings together the most superb works of art from about 30 Austrian collections and museums. This don’t-miss show will run in the Lentos Museum of Modern Art until May 10, 2009. The highpoint of Day 2 of the Capital of Culture year will be the opening of the architecturally spectacular addition to the Ars Electronica Center that will be providing the Museum of the Future with 4,000 m² of additional space.
Linz, Memory – Encounter with the Recent Past
The history of the 20th century is one of Linz09’s most important themes. The Capital of Culture is working together with the Museums of the Province of Upper Austria to stage “The Führer’s Capital of Culture” (September 17, 2008 to March 22, 2009), a confrontation with the National Socialist past as a whole and, in particular, Nazi cultural policymaking and regional cultural life during the Nazi era.
Amidst Us by Hito Steyerl deals with the Nazi past of the bridgehead building on Linz’s Main Square. An architectural intervention and installation in the building’s lobby visualize the research process and attempt to make the stones “talk.” (January to December 2009).
In situ makes it possible to experience the actual locations where the Nazis’ policies of persecution and extermination were carried out. Temporary signs in public spaces pinpoint sites of Nazi atrocities—from the persecution of Jews to the everyday dimension of terror (beginning in March 2009 throughout the city).
The last three decades of the city’s history are reflected in the City in Luck exhibition in the Nordico Museum. About 100 interviews with Linz residents, documentation of significant events, analysis of various upheavals and watersheds, and the showcasing of iconographic objects provide a graphic narration of everyday life in Linz (June 5 to September 13, 2009).
Art in Public Spaces
“Culture for All” has long been one of the city’s declared aims. Linz09 takes this utopian concept literally and offers numerous projects in public settings. In late May 2009, collaboration with the OK Center for Contemporary Art will reach a brilliant climax. Following Schaurausch (Viewing Spree) and Tiefenrausch (Rapture of the Deep), we’ll be staging Höhenrausch (High-altitude Euphoria) from March 29 to September 27, 2009. Visitors will experience the highpoints of Linz—spectacular panoramas and the pinnacles of contemporary art. A high-adventure tour along a cleverly designed system of routes will lead from the Passage shopping center’s parking deck to the Ursulinenhof’s warehouse and back down onto solid ground. This Art in the City!! trilogy has been designed to open up new approaches and realms of operation. Art has to make its presence felt in everyday life and thus insinuate itself into the field of vision of the general public, most of whom are not museumgoers.
The culmination of any stay in Linz is an excursion up Pöstlingberg, which offers an impressive panoramic view of the city. The Sacred Mountain goes further by opening up new perspectives: 20 installations and interventions by artists from Austria and abroad let pilgrims, flaneurs and tourists experience Pöstlingberg via unfamiliar paths (June 13 to September 13, 2009).
The next Festival of the Regions will be focusing on the southern outskirts of Linz, the Auwiesen suburb and the housing developments of solarCity. “Normalcy” will inquire into the definitive characteristics of life beyond downtown (May 9 to June 1, 2009).
Linz – Europe’s Acoustic Model City
The Capital of Culture has set a lofty goal in the musical-acoustic domain: We aim to make Linz Europe’s acoustic model city. Acoustic City is Linz09’s effort to get people to consciously hear; it works on behalf of an acoustic environment that’s fit for human beings. This includes a campaign against the unwanted noise that bombards us in public spaces, the Akustikon as an institution of hearing, the acoustic urban development program of the Linzer Charta, and two public auditory refuges—one in the former Centralkino (November 2008 to November 2009, Landstraße 36) and one in St. Mary’s Cathedral (until October 2009, Baumbachstr./Herrenstr.). The Akustikon (located at Pfarrgasse 9-13) is a place for acoustic research, theory formation and education/outreach (beginning in mid-2009).
On November 20, “The Programme” will go on sale at the regular price of €19 at the Linz09 Infocenter on Hauptplatz, in local bookstores, and at Springer Verlag’s online shop. Holders of the Linz09 Card or the Linz09 Insider are entitled to purchase “The Programme” at the discount price of €9.
Details:
Urban Explorations that Run the GamutLinz and the Region
The Whole City is Theater
“Reading is Adventure in Your Head”
Kids and Young People
Linz, Europa and the World
Linz Brings Together Art, Media and Technology
Linz09 Creates Networks
Download:
Linz09’s “Neuner” – The Capital of Culture MagazineLinz09 Card & Linz09 Insider
