These are the questions that the Bad Ischl Salzkammergut region focussed on in 2024. For the first time, it was not a city but an Alpine region that was the European Capital of Culture. The countryside, which is so often the poor relation of politics and business, was seen here as an artistic space of opportunity that opens up new ways of thinking about the past, the future and current social issues – exemplary for many other rural regions in Europe. “Impetus” is the title of the picture and text book on this diverse series of Capital of Culture projects.

Mandelbaum Verlag Wien
436 pages, format: 17×24, English brochure, numerous colour illustrations
ISBN: 978399136-083-4436

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Haderer’s caricatures are razor-sharp, rich in detail, trenchant and irresistible. Caricatures familiar from newspapers and numerous publications are now projected onto the wall and presented by the master himself. With a story or two to go with them. In between, Hans Peter Falkner, a maestro on the accordion and part of the musical duo Attwenger for decades, sings and plays music. In his dances and songs, he combines unique linguistic artistry with a playful squeezebox sound. Haderer and Falkner rock each other through this evening: a colourful cartoon show with music, brains and humour.

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three local positions, supported by Salzkammergut 2024

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This is the premise of a 1990 short story by Margaret Atwood called “Death by Landscape.” Atwood’s story is told from the perspective of the surviving woman, decades later. Her friend never reappeared, and the loss has haunted the narrator for her whole life. Meanwhile, she has developed an obsession with landscape paintings of forests. She collects them and covers the walls of her home with them. Staring at the paintings in her room one evening, she remarks that they seem to “open inward on the wall, not like windows but like doors.” And sometimes, after looking at a painting for several hours, she thinks she glimpses her lost friend in the image-not as she was, in human form, or hidden among the trees, but as a tree. She admits that she has come to believe the hillside gained a new tree the day of the disappearance. If you take the narrator’s conclusion at face value, the death at the center of “Death by Landscape” is not a death at all. It’s a transition, a twin becoming of girl and tree. The figure becomes part of the landscape, and so the landscape becomes a kind of figure. Situating her aging narrator in a room full of landscapes, Atwood presents the person-plant transition as something like an optical trick. In that gap of perception, figure and landscape merge or flip. As the narrator says: “There are no backgrounds in any of these paintings, no vistas; only a great deal of foreground that goes back and back, endlessly, involving you in its twists and turns of tree and branch and rock.” The word landscape is typically used to suggest the passive, the inert, the natural- the plant, animal, and mineral world that constitutes a backdrop for a human actor. But here, the sudden absence of a human actor occasions a sudden presence: the presence of landscape, the presence of plants.”

Han-Gyeol, Paul and Alix have linked their efforts and craft to landscapes and their absence, presenting a dance as an incantation, a slow daily ethnographic practice that tiptoes on the piano keyboard, its keys circled by the combined technologies of Han-Gyeol Lie and Paul Kotal: a concert for the Salzkamergut.

How to rehearse forms of disengagement from (every) things that, in our daily forms of dancing and choreographing, working, crafting continue to reinstate cycles of violence, oppression, exhaustion? 

While the fact that dance is a field of experimentation where one can exercise acute critiques of the current conditions of existence (Lepecki, 2016) became tangible, so does the realization that any exercise, movement, phrase of movements is symptomatic of -at least- one ideology. 

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Nick Oberthaler’s artistic practice explores the function of abstract painting as a medium for visual and spatial experiences. His works draw on visual codes and parameters from image theory, the digital realm, and institutional contexts. For the exhibition at the Post Office building in Bad Ischl, Oberthaler conceived a new series that references the visual identity of the city. Using compositional methods of abstraction, he created paintings that intertwine representational modes and design elements of flags with the processual nature of painting.

Lise Lebleux works primarily with field recordings, creating sound topologies that capture the unique atmospheres of various spaces. Each sound piece is an audio record of a specific, singular environment, capturing its distinct acoustic qualities. Her audio installation “Sounds of the Valley” specially designed for the stairwell of the Post Office building, captures the unique sounds of the Salzkammergut region. Her compositions have been featured at Radiophrenia in Glasgow, *Duu Radio in Paris, and Montez Press Radio in New York. In 2023, she held her first institutional solo exhibition at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof in Hamburg, and in the summer of 2024, she will develop a new composition for ORF/Ö1 Kunstradio.

Clara Lemercier Gemptel’s film and photography practice centers on themes of gender and identity construction and the relationship between architecture and the human body. For the exhibition in Bad Ischl, she created a series of photographs that explore mining, a theme closely tied to the identity of the Salzkammergut region. Her recent short film, TEAM SPIRIT, was selected for the official program of the Si Cinema Festival at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In fall 2024, she will present a new film production at the 17th Lyon Biennale.

Ugo Sébastião is a painter whose work investigates the material aspects of panel painting, examining its physical characteristics in relation to (art) historical significance. He questions and analyzes different technological conditions of painting, including the support, ground, framing, and installation. This approach led to a new series of small-format paintings on wood, titled “in between,” which examines the interplay of materiality and composition. These works reflect a baroque influence and demonstrate a deep interest in the textural and material qualities of painting. In 2022, he participated in the Artist in Residence Program at Palazzo Monti in Brescia and has had solo exhibitions at Alice Amati Gallery in London (2023) and Pal Project in Paris (2022).

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By inserting a light bulb / peace bulb into the light installation, visitors set a shining example for peace.

“Art is one of the manifestations of the principle of creation in the universe. War, on the other hand, is a destructive force against creation.” Kiki Smith, New York artist. This is a particular concern of the renowned and fascinating artist today.

Anish Kapoor, one of the most influential and successful contemporary artists, expresses his displeasure and concern about the senseless deaths of countless people with the demand that “war must no longer be the legacy we leave to our children“. Even when it comes to undisputed justice, he declares: “War, nationalism and capitalism are the tools of oppression used by the people we keep in power to oppress and dominate the least able in our society.“

“The task of art is not to present someone’s interest or ideology – its power and meaning lies in the radicality of thought.” Peter Noever. This guiding principle led to the exhibition “Peace Now!”

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Gardens are often intimate places that cannot be viewed by the public. The project contributes to making the garden a place for public dialogue, encounters, reflection and cultural exchange, bringing people from different backgrounds and perspectives together to negotiate the present.

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As a special programme feature, an interdisciplinary discourse will take place as part of a series of events that will seek new perspectives in the examination of art. In this way, we are creating a new framework in which the enjoyment of art meets up with literature, psychology, culinary delights and sustainability in a cheeky rendezvous.

You can find more information on the respective exhibitions and events at www.galerie422.at/frames

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The remaining rooms and, in agreement with the municipality, the attractively sized outdoor area have been made available for cultural design and use by the people of Vorchdorf. The concept of culture is deliberately broad in order to enable diversity, discourse, connection and thus development. The villa became KULTURVILLA VORCHDORF through a bottom-up process that started at the beginning of October 2023.

The aim of the process is to connect interested parties from Vorchdorf (and the surrounding area) and to support them in organising themselves at the beginning, so that the Kulturvilla Vorchdorf becomes a constructive place for cultural activities of all kinds, which ideally will sustainably enliven and expand cultural life in Vorchdorf beyond 2024.
Address: Kulturvilla Vorchdorf, Bahnhofstraße 13, 4655 Vorchdorf

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60 short essays, cartoons and literary and artistic opinion pieces offer a range of perspectives on the region and its nature, culture, history and people. Written by renowned figures from literature, the sciences and art, the essays are informative, educational, effusive, critical and witty, and give deep insights into the Salzkammergut.

Contributors include Bettina Balàka, Markus Binder, Isolde Charim, Conchita Wurst, Mareike Fallwickl, René Freund, Barbara Frischmuth, Hubert von Goisern, Andrea Grill, Rudolf Habringer, Gerhard Haderer, Angelika Hager, Bodo Hell, Johannes Jetschgo, Franz Kain, Günter Kaindlstorfer, Edith Kneifl, Julia Kospach, Sarah Kuratle, Nicolas Mahler, Stephen M. Mautner, Eva Menasse, Nick Oberthaler, Walter Pilar, Helga Rabl-Stadler, Hans Reschreiter, Andrea Roedig, Franz Schuh, Elfie Semotan, Magdalena Stammler, Liv Strömquist, Anton Thuswaldner, Bernadette Wegenstein and more.

Prestel Verlag
Hardcover, Pappband, 304 Seiten, 17 x 24 cm
ISBN: 978-3-7913-8016-2

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23 light people by the artist Isa Stein accompany the audience to the many places in the city where there will be celebrations: in churches, in the Alte Post, in Sudhaus, in the Lehár theater, in the Bad Ischl train station. Esther Balfe’s performance group heralds the start of the interventa Hallstatt 2024 building culture symposium. The art project SOLANGE #29 by Katharina Cibulka asks questions about equality. The spectacular animation Flood by Ruth Schnell and Martin Kusch (kondition pluriel) negotiates the Declaration of Human Rights.

Associations and musicians from the Salzkammergut region and abroad will make the opening night sound out loud and proud! Celebrate with us! With the Salzkammergut region, with Europe, with the world. We look forward to welcoming you.

→ Gallery

→ Other European Capitals of Culture 2024

On 26 January, Tartu2024 and Southern Estonia began their year as the European Capital of Culture. Following Bad Ischl Salzkammergut in Austria and preceding Bodø in Norway, the second largest city in Estonia ushered in the year full of 1000 events with a grand opening show “All Is One!”. An audience of thousands gathered in the heart of the university town on the banks of the river Emajõgi. The show, with a cast of over 100 actors, dancers and musicians centered on the importance of being with loved ones and building connections.

→ read more

The opening ceremony of Bodø2024 in Norway on 3 February culminated in fireworks followed by applause from up to 20,000 people in Molobukta. In an almost windless Bodø Harbor, the audience was embraced by a magnificent mix of performing arts, sound and light. From the stage out at sea, a half-hour journey into the new year in the north began. The opening of the first European Capital of Culture in a city north of the Arctic Circle was a success.

→ read more

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Sagadin employs humor and exaggeration in both her language of form and use of color to reveal mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion and to break with established codes of art observation. In a playful and subversive manner, her works refer to elements of pop and subculture and applied art. In the interaction between gender, language, and sculpture, they subvert existing norms and thematize sculpture as a form of visualization.

The artist Maruša Sagadin is redesigning the foyer of the Alte Post with her playful, subversive sculptures. Sculptural benches and pillars (the so-called Luv Birds) will be artistically placed in the form of a dense forest of sculptures to open up the space for visitors and ultimately create a place to linger and exchange ideas.

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With its four program lines, the European Capital of Culture provides inspiration for the specific encounter between citizens in Europe, strengthens the creative exchange between artists and supports international academic dialogue through shared projects. The 2024 European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut deals with questions of the local and global present and future. What roles does the region play in Europe? How does rural Alpine space develop? Globalization has challenged Europe’s understanding of itself.

Inner upheavals and the geopolitical shifts are calling upon us to rethink Europe’s place in the world. The 2024 European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut would like to make a contribution to positively shaping and living European culture in the future.

23 communities within the Salzkammergut region will network with each other and thus prove that working with each other while maintaining one’s own singularity is both a strength and signal that a Europe with selfaware regions is space for the future, just like rural space. With countless partner cities through Europe and beyond, with more than 200 art and culture projects and an additional 100 associated projects, we are giving culture the importance that it deserves with which a future can be built and a civil society can be made possible. The baton will be passed, so-to-speak, every 14 days during the year 2024, placing the respective focus on a specific community. Each community is the European Capital of Culture, together we are all the European Capital of Culture.

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Everything That Happened and Would Happen spans a hundred years of European history: its giddy contradictions, false promises and consuming crises. Taking World War I as a starting point, the performance proposes a landscape of fragmented incident without differentiating between the trivial and the supposedly meaningful. Together with musicians, dancers and performers, Heiner Goebbels leads us to a storage depot filled with the props of the past, the burden of the present and the key to possible futures. Part performance, part construction site, Everything That Happened and Would Happen is an invitation to imagine an alternative history of the 20th century through the poetry of collaboration and chance. Patrik Ouředník’s novel Europeana. A Brief History of the 20th Century, John Cage’s anti-opera Europeras 1 & 2 and the European TV channel Euronews – No Comment are three interlinked sources of inspiration. Everything That Happened and Would Happen is an open invitation to reflect on what constitutes European identity, where its origins lie and what its future might look like; to imagine different versions of our past, present and future.

German composer and director Heiner Goebbels is one of the most important figures in the contemporary music and theatre scene. He has created internationally celebrated compositions for ensemble and large orchestra (Surrogate Cities, A House of Call), music-theatre pieces (Max Black, Eraritjaritjaka), staged concerts (Songs of Wars I Have Seen), radio plays and sound and video installations (Documenta, Centre Pompidou, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá).

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GRETE, the sky is falling

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The sculpture will remain in place beyond 2024.

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Here you can find the Making-Off

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