HOUSE OF STORIES
Press Conference
20 February 2009
(February 22 to December 2009)
An empty downtown apartment building dating back to the 17th century has been converted into a space for stories: to enjoy and invent them, to play them out. This setting makes one curious about what’s been accreted and secreted here over the years between vestibule and attic. What everyday life might have been like in the kitchens and bathrooms at the rear of the building; what discoveries await in the cold storage room and coal cellar.
This house on Pfarrplatz has been vacant for years. The city purchased the property in the early 1990s; the last tenants moved out two years ago. Since then, it’s been cleaned up and renovated a bit. Now it’s ready to serve as a setting for small exhibits, readings or screenings—productions then tell about life, about being at home and going away, about relationships, about pleasure and pain, about human beings and animals, and about love.
All those who engage this place should be prepared to be touched. And must be ready to adapt to it as well—to its warmth or cold, silence or noise from outside, to daylight or dusk. Narratives completely pervade this house and accompany one throughout these rooms. Tales of a curious or gloomy nature, amusing anecdotes, surprising plot twists.
To bring this about, we’ve put together a household of sorts: tenants with highly varied backgrounds whose task will be to breathe life into this building for a spell. Over the year, it will host a great number of different protagonists—for instance, artists, cooks, collectors, travelers, authors.
Like any boarding house, the tenants come and go over the course of the year—and with them, their stories, presentations, activities and installations.
Currently ensconced in the HOUSE OF STORIES:
Claudia Czimek: Travel Agency “sCHICk” (Ground Floor)
Paul Kranzler: Family Album (1st Upper Level)
Alex Stelzer: “The House” in the Reading Room (1st Upper Level)
“of my Life”. A Collection. (1st Upper Level)
Maggie Cardelús: Zoo, Age 10. Looking for time. (2nd Upper Level)
eter Arlt: My Private Universe. On what has been collected, 1986-2008 (2nd Upper Level)
Every Monday: A chat with Peter Arlt
freundinnen der kunst: Woolly Walls. Friday afternoon knitting (2nd Upper Level)
Knitting every Friday afternoon with the (girl)friends of art.
The HOUSE OF STORIES is holding a drive to collect wool and old photo albums. We’re grateful for all contributions!
HOUSE OF STORIES
Pfarrplatz 18, 4020 Linz
Opening:Sunday, February 22, 2009, 2-6 PM
Opening Hours:
February to December
Monday thru Friday: 4-7 PM
Saturday, Sunday and holidays:
Phone: +43 (0) 664/82 83 86 7
Idee /Konzept: Linz09 / Martin Heller, Julia Stoff, Christine Weisser
Excerpt from a research report about the building at Pfarrplatz 18
(by Heike Krösche)
As part of the HOUSE OF STORIES project, we’ve succeeded in tracing virtually the entire history of ownership of this piece of real estate. On the other hand, very little information about the residential and commercial tenants has surfaced. Some of the property owners lived on the premises and used the retail space themselves. One of the former tenants describes the living conditions as austere. The apartment was difficult to heat, the bedroom impossible. The tiled stoves didn’t provide enough heat. The bathroom at the rear had been added on; originally, it had been the site of a pit latrine that emitted an unpleasant odor. The attempt had been made to improve the living conditions—for instance, straightening the walls through the installation of paneling. During the renovation of the building next door, concrete flowed into the wall adjacent to that property. The effects are still visible.
