steirischer herbst

The horrors of the fatherland in a super election year

Marta Navaridas and her international troupe perform a punk ballet

(Bild: ELSA OKAZAKI)

Under the motto "Horror Patriae - Terrors of the Fatherland", steirischer herbst is once again exploring the political landscape. In a year of many elections, artistic director Ekaterina Degot and her team will be focusing on concepts such as homeland, origin and belonging from September 19 to October 13.

Elections are being held this year, not only in Styria and the federal government, but also in many countries around the world. The trend is clearly to the right. For artists, this is more than a good reason to look beneath the surface of simple solutions and seductive slogans. This is why herbst director Ekaterina Degot and her curatorial team have proclaimed "Horror Patriae" for the festival.

herbst director Ekaterina Degot

(Bild: Dietmar Reinbacher)

"Everywhere nationalism raises its grimace and whispers seductive slogans," reads the steirischer herbst strategy paper. One of the festival's tasks is to expose these slogans. In cooperation with the Universalmuseum Joanneum, the large herbst exhibition in the Neue Galerie will also contribute to this. Collection pieces from various museum departments will be brought together with works by 30 international artists. Fifteen contributions alone are commissioned works. 

Museum as a venue
Of particular interest will be Pablo Bronstein's examination of historicism in Graz, Thomas Hörl's ancestral gallery of Perchten, Assaf Gruber's cinematic exploration of anti-Semitism, Jan Peter Hammer's historical excursion into Noreia and Helene Thümmel's media quotations.

Nations, borders, roots and customs are more fiction than reality. One of the places where they were historically created is the museum.

herbst-Intendantin Ekaterina Degot

Another exhibition in the Forum Stadtpark deals with Werner Fenz's project "Kunst Heimat Kunst" (1992 to 1994), where works by the first Fenz scholarship holder Clara Ianni are also on display.

Exciting performances not only at the opening
The opening will feature a performance by Natalia Pschenitschnikova in the Lesliehof and an unusual operetta by the international troupe La Fleur in the List Hall. "The Phantom of the Operetta" refers not least to Emmerich Kálmán.

Opening night: operetta from a post-colonial perspective with La Fleur

(Bild: Monika Gintersdorfer)

Choreographer Marta Navaridas puts a punk ballet on stage, Felix Hafner follows in the footsteps of an Austrian folk song evening in Addis Ababa in 1925, Gerald Straub brings Mexican dances to the B 68 between Gleisdorf and Feldbach, and Thomas Verstraeten from the Belgian collective FC Bergmann erects living forest tableaux in the traditional Graz department store Kastner & Öhler.

The inversion practiced by Ari Benjamin Meyers in a tennis hall is also pretty. Here, children sing adults to sleep to texts by British author Tom McCarthy. And finally, the Theater im Bahnhof in Knittelfeld explores the implosion of the FPÖ in 2002.

Festivals in the festival and partners
As always, the Out of Joint literature festival (curated by Klaus Kastberger), musikprotokoll and an extensive partner program of galleries and cultural events await you this year. 

Once again, the focus will be on steirischer herbst's successful education program, which is aimed at both young people and adults with workshops, information events and special events.