City walks

Gürtel: Vienna needs an anti-capitalist subculture

"Krone" reporter Robert Fröwein talks to Viennese people about their thoughts, experiences and concerns.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

"Krone" reporter Robert Fröwein strolls through the city and talks to people in Vienna about their experiences, their thoughts, their worries, their fears. Everyday stories straight from the heart of Vienna.

Just under a month ago, a piece of news shook Vienna's subculture scene. The popular underground belt bar Venster99 was closed down by the authorities virtually overnight. The operators announced via social media that they were having problems with official controls. Various rumors spread like wildfire online and, in addition to the mere information that an important institution for a niche music scene that mainly catered to punk, hardcore and metal fans had to close indefinitely, discussions about Austrian bureaucracy and the whinnying bureaucracy grew louder. The exact details of the temporary closure are foggy, but the fact is that Venster99 does not see itself as a profit-oriented business, but as an organized association that offers an autonomous free space.

According to its own statement, it is committed to diverse, non-commercial and anti-hierarchical cultural work. In other words: the admission and beer prices vary depending on your mood, the smallest underground bands can earn their first live spurs without making a big fuss and have a good time in a location that doesn't cause any noise nuisance to the outside world, and as an interested visitor, you can let yourself drift without going bankrupt weeks before an event via various advance booking channels. Venster99 is, even more than other venues under the Gürtelbögen, a safe space for the young and young at heart to have a good time away from obligations and rules and to support each other without being beaten to death by the all-encompassing club of neoliberalism.

Canceled concerts were temporarily moved to other venues such as the Arena or Rhiz, but it's more about the question of how a city of millions wants to deal with subculture. It is obvious that certain rules and obligations are part of a consensual coexistence. But in a society increasingly permeated by restrictions and bureaucratic overload, low-threshold contact points for artists and those interested in art are increasingly coming under attack. The question is more an interpersonal one than an official one: do we want to cut the last roots of cultural freedom without profit orientation? Is it necessary to further regulate the world of art and culture, which is already meandering close to its existential limits? And do we really want to destroy an important space for diversity by taking away leisure and cultural opportunities from people with smaller budgets?

Barriers are being erected in free zones that do not disturb anyone. We are structuring and depriving event organizers and artists of the opportunity to try things out and fail without too much stress and without harming others. For the majority of people, subcultural scenes may seem grungy, grindy or deviant. But in a city of two million people, there has to be room for canned beer on the subway as well as champagne on the Graben. Next to the pomp of the State Opera, the walls of the Gürtel pubs are covered in smudges. Next to the delicate waltz, the snotty punk concert. It's not about subculture putting itself above the law and getting away with everything. But it is about the question of how to deal in public spaces with those who don't want to make a profit but want to have a good time together. Who do not submit to the dictates of turbo capitalism. Community applies to us all and a cosmopolitan city must provide space for non-commercial subculture.