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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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.

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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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3-day hike (German and English) for max. 25 people.
Details and costs will be announced later.
Registration at Thursdays@verein08.at.

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The salt trade has nourished, enriched and internationally networked the region, it has made some wealthy and powerful and attracted many wealthy and powerful people to the region; the Salzkammergut has become a place of longing with the summer resort, and the historic cultural landscape in the inner Salzkammergut is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In this book published by the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024, Trautl Brandstaller guides us through the eventful history of the Salzkammergut, from the Hallstatt culture and the early emergence of a proletariat to National Socialism and the various resistance activities. Writers, artists, journalists and historians describe their view of the Salzkammergut.

With contributions from Christoph Ransmayr, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Yvonne Oswald, Miguel Herz-Kestranek, Nina Höllinger, Günter Kaindlstorfer, Robert Schindel, René Freund and Julia Müllegger.

Mandelbaum Publishing House Vienna
180 pages, format 17 x 24, English brochure
ISBN: 978399136-041-4
The book is only available in German.

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US sound artist Bill Fontana uses sensors to make the vibrations of the bells audible, transmits the sounds to the ice caves on the Dachstein and mirrors them in a duet with live-sounds of the melting glacier, an impressive artistic statement on climate change and the fragility of culture. This site-specific duet forms the basis for a “sound bridge” that will be transmitted to exhibition venues in Europe and beyond, supplemented by a video work that documents the melting of the Dachstein glacier in the same way.

The Parzival Dome in the ice caves of the Dachstein is a place that harbours an invaluable secret, as Anton Bruckner’s composition Locus iste puts it: a secret that asks us humans how we want to live with nature in the future. In addition, the Upper Austrian KulturEXPO Anton Bruckner 2024 in cooperation with the Goiserer Musiktage will award a commission to young composers on this topic. The work will be premiered as part of the European Capital of Culture 2024 at the Goiserer Musiktage on the Glasfügel in the ice cave.

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In highly concentrated salt brine, visitors are immersed in the silence of outer space. The strong buoyancy of the warm brine creates a state of weightlessness and deep relaxation – this enhances the immersive effect of the high-resolution 360° projections of space travel and the external view of the globe.

The International Brine Space Harbour integrates a brine suspension system in a geodesic dome (fulldome) with high technical precision, and is complemented by video projections that are precisely tailored to this environment. Such a facility is unique in the world and is now open to the public for the first time in Bad Ischl.

The interplay of architecture, technology and the state of the brain during weightless floating creates an immersion effect: this means that the perception of oneself in the real world is reduced and identification with oneself in the virtual world is increased.

Floating in the fulldome

Floating is a relaxation technique in which you float in a pool of warm salt water, isolated from external stimuli. This method promotes deep physical and mental relaxation and is used in medicine, psychotherapy and wellness. Floating makes it possible to achieve a state of deep meditation.

To achieve optimum buoyancy, the concentration of brine used for floating corresponds to the salt content in the Dead Sea (30%). For comparison: In the bathing area of thermal baths, the salt content of the water is usually 3%. The raw brine for the SOLENAUT*INNEN’s space harbour (sodium chloride / saline solution) comes directly from nearby Altaussee.

Space films specially developed for this environment are shown in the hemisphere of the fulldome, simulating three-dimensional perception. The 4K 360° video projection system, consisting of 5 Barco laser phosphor projectors, is comparable in quality to Zeiss projectors in planetariums. A special projection surface of the indoor screen enables perfect reproduction of the image material in daylight and ensures independence from weather conditions such as rain or wind. The combination of these two technologies enables an impressive visual experience and has established itself as an innovative solution for planetariums and immersive experience spaces.

Space for all

“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth”

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, December 1968

Astronauts report that actually looking at the Earth from the outside creates the profound new experience of realising oneself as part of humanity and the planet. This creates a physical realisation (not just an intellectual understanding) that we only have this one home planet and that there is nothing else like it far and wide. As a SOLENAUT*IN, it becomes possible to approach this planetary perspective, the overview effect.

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Tourist hotspots suffer from the onslaught of visitors, while other places are left behind. Communities are divided: On the one hand, they benefit from tourism, but on the other, they are increasingly noticing undesirable side effects. And considering that tourism is more dependent on the climate than other sectors of the economy, it is astonishing that climate change is often still a marginal issue here of all places.

How can we rethink tourism in times of climate crisis, wars, the threat of further pandemics, a shortage of skilled labour and an ongoing energy crisis and steer it in a more sustainable direction? What role do spatial planning and architecture play in this? The exhibition highlights key aspects of tourism such as mobility, urban tourism, interactions with agriculture, climate change, the privatisation of natural beauty and changes in accommodation typologies, and explores the question of whether and how tourism development is planned. Vivid illustrations, examples and data are used to address phenomena such as short-term rental platforms, “cold beds”, the accumulation of wealth through holiday properties or the declining “tourism mindset” among the population due to the escalating cost of housing and living.
Above all, however, the exhibition is looking for potential for transformation. Many travellers are reluctant to see themselves as part of the mass tourism phenomenon, and doubts about the climate compatibility of our travel behaviour are becoming ever louder.

A large number of initiatives have recently emerged that take a different approach to nature, the local population, the climate, towns and villages and mobility. The exhibition presents pioneering solutions based on local and international projects. Planning concepts from different countries invite a strategic comparison. Numerous successful examples whet the appetite for a type of holiday that is no longer exclusively based on consumption and the growth paradigm. The question remains at the centre: How can we imagine a tourism that does not destroy what it lives on?

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The winning projects

“The Bat Bomb“

Bats as bombs, a dentist with a crazy plan and a secret military site: Based on a true story, “The Bat Bomb” follows the unusual plan of Lytle S. Adams, who, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, suggests to the President in a letter that bats be used as living incendiary bombs. Roosevelt’s approval leads to the establishment of a military site in New Mexico and the formation of the “X-Ray” team under the leadership of Doc. Adams: dentist, inventor and patriot. In May 1942, the team tests the cooled bats equipped with self-triggering incendiary bombs. But the bizarre endeavour takes an unexpected turn when some of the bats wake up from their cold rest and fly away.

“The Bat Bomb” takes a humorous look at an insane invention and its historical circumstances. The mass devotion of the American population offers a peculiar insight into the dynamics of war patriotism. Infected by blind hatred, a people develop absurd ideas regardless of the consequences.

“GOLDAUSTRUD’L or `The shrinking city'”

based on the libretto “The shrinking city”

The Shrinking Town tells the story of a holiday resort whose inhabitants are confronted with the absurd effects of a mysterious substance: Their small town is shrinking! Everyday life becomes increasingly bizarre – and the residents ask themselves: Where does the substance come from? What is it trying to tell us? And above all: How can we get rid of it?

People who have never even listened to each other before now have to pull together in the same direction. It’s not without humour, and everything goes better with (allusive) music anyway!

“L’écosystème humain?“

“L’écosystème humain?” is an operetta that analyses the discourses of the currently growing far-right movements in Europe from a decolonising Latin American perspective. The operetta combines elements of sociology, micronarrative, humour, criticism and the potential fusion of text and musical composition, creating a third concept of expression. Based on the concept of the “nano” as a compositional axis, a minimal fugue point with great complexity, we aim for a dramaturgy, scenography and music based on multiple dualities. The libretto will quote excerpts from speeches of far-right movements across Europe to show the violence and paradox of their narratives. With the global growth of far-right movements, we believe it is crucial to reflect on political discourses in order to understand which political direction we are taking, why and how we can counter them – both by constructing and deconstructing discourses. The genre of “operetta” offers us the opportunity to explore, parody and constantly question the potential “human ecosystems” we create in order to develop possible artistic responses.

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Anyone who enjoys attending cultural events and would like to take someone with them as a culturebuddy, contact kulturbuddy@caritas-ooe.at.

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Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel founded the theater label Rimini Protokoll in 2000 and have been working under this name in various constellations ever since. Piece by piece, they expand the means of theater to create new perspectives on reality. Rimini Protokoll often develop their stage plays, interventions, scenic installations and radio plays with experts who have tested their knowledge and skills beyond the theater. They also like to translate spaces or social orders into theatrical formats. Many of their works are characterized by interactivity and a playful approach to technology.

Infos

Suitable for children aged 8 and over.
The audio walk takes about 90 minutes on foot through Bad Ischl, is not barrier-free and takes place in all weathers.
Start: 5 pm, but please be at the cemetery at 4.45 pm (to hand out the equipment)!
A valid photo ID is required for the technical equipment.

On four dates English tours are offered, tickets available separately:
Thu 4 July, Fri 12 July, Fri 19 July, Fri 26 July  

“Remote X” is a production by Rimini Apparat in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Maria Matos Teatro Municipal and the Goethe-Institut Portugal, Festival Theaterformen Hannover/Braunschweig, Festival d’Avignon, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Kaserne Basel. The production is funded by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin and supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. “Remote X” is a co-production with House on Fire and with the support of the European Union’s Culture Programme.

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From the exhibition in the Villa Pantschoulidzeff – built by the famous architect Theophil Hansen – with a magnificent view of Lake Traunsee and Traunstein, this expedition takes you by boat across the lake to the “wild” Salzkammergut: the destination is the Karbach quarry, an industrial site in the middle of a picturesque mountain world on the secluded eastern shore of Gmunden. On their tour, guests are accompanied by experienced guides and encounter a symbiosis of nature, industrial culture and works of art.

Where the real and the bizarre meet, “bizarre realism” comes into the world. This term was coined by the Ebensee writer Walter Pilar. At Villa Pantschoulidzeff, he and other artists are showing works of unconventional power. Pilar’s main work “Karbach-Hochalter” can be admired in the garden room. In the Salon, Bedroom and Cabinet, guests can experience works that are fascinating and irritating, humorous and serious at the same time. On display are dives, root worlds, headstands and an endless necklace.

The journey to the Karbach quarry is made by boat. White limestone was quarried here from 1890 to 2005, “the mountain was transported across the lake” (according to Pilar) and processed into soda in Ebensee. The route leads to the plant near the lake, where guests encounter artistic interventions – such as an alchemical laboratory in the workshop, a sound performance with singing stones in the sorting plant or an alpenglow underground.

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The project is conducted annually with the goal of eventually photographing all 47 prefectures. Organized by the NGO EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee, it seeks to promote Japanese art and culture in Europe and foster intercultural exchange. The photographs taken each year across various locations in Japan are published the following year in European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today and exhibited in Japanese cities as well as in the European Capitals of Culture.

For the 24th edition of European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today, Austrian photographer Susanna Hofer and Norwegian photographer Aurora Haaland Stenersen photographed in Nagano Prefecture on Japan’s main island.

Susanna Hofer created photographic works featuring self-made objects crafted from everyday materials. The sometimes humorous and charming appearance of these objects is striking, yet her works contain complex references that explore art history and photography, such as Surrealism, snapshots, and Straight Photography.

“I was curious to see how Susanna Hofer’s method—which gently questions the original function of materials and our preconceived notions about them—would develop in Nagano, a culture entirely different from Europe. Thanks to the support of Ms. Kamisawa, who runs a contemporary art gallery in Chikuma City, the photographer was able to connect with artists living in Nagano and experience their traditional culture, such as the Shimenawa technique. Susanna Hofer’s works capture the Japanese view of nature, as seen in bonsai, ikebana, and daily life, and contrast it with the natural landscape of Nagano, with its steep mountains and vast forests.”

Mikiko Kikuta, Curator of European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today

Aurora Haaland Stenersen’s photographic work stands out for its treatment of light. It is not “light” that reveals something in daylight but rather a “soft light” that illuminates Nagano’s trees, mountains, and inhabitants, sometimes revealing them and at other times letting them fade into obscurity. Like this light, the photographer doesn’t assert Queerness loudly but seems to coexist with a diversity that cannot be captured in a single term. Through various contacts, Mikiko Kikuta reached out to LGBTQIA+ individuals in Nagano to ask if they would be willing to participate in Aurora Haaland Stenersen’s photography project. The photographer’s persistence and genuine approach helped engage local participants in the project, as Japanese society still often feels discomfort addressing LGBTQIA+ issues.

“Aurora Stenersen was the youngest of the shortlisted photographers, but I felt that her photos have a distinctly defined visual language. This is largely due to her clear vision of what she wants to express through her photos. She chose to explore the visibility of Queerness in rural areas, a theme she had previously focused on in Nagano.”

Mikiko Kikuta, Curator of European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today

The exhibition was initially shown in European capitals and later in Japan. The photographic works, developed as part of the residencies, reflect thematic and processual diversity and were showcased in European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today, curated by Mikiko Kikuta, at the exhibition space in the Eggenberg Castle Brewery. After completing the exhibition circuit, the works will be donated to the prefectures where they were captured and to Higashikawa in Hokkaido (home to the Higashikawa International Photography Festival) to become part of the cultural heritage for future generations.

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Users enter a three-dimensional space via computer, tablet or smartphone and navigate through thematic areas such as salt, the timber industry, transport and folk culture, as well as through the museums of the Salzkammergut. In the process, the knowledge treasures are networked as 3D objects, films, animations, images and texts and linked to current topics. The virtual journey makes the treasures visible and makes you want to visit the museums in the Salzkammergut on site.

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Regional Express is an audiovisual experience on the rail route; a trip from the past to the future. While traveling, passengers can hear the conversation of the Train, the Mountain and Traunsee Mermaid intercut by fragments of interviews with locals. Memories of humans and non-humans retell the story of the Salzkammergut. Petra Ardai created this docu-fiction narrative about how the landscape, the salt, and the industry formed the region. Which powers shaped structures that are still present? What is the place of tradition in the future? You can hop on the train in Gmunden, Ebensee, Bad Ischl, Hallstatt and Bad Aussee. The 5 excursions can be accessed via the QR code and from March 2024 via the Salzkammergut Culture Guide App. Bring your headphones!

CINE VR:

From August 2024, a cinematographic Virtual Reality experience directed by Ella Raidel takes the audience to the future and back to the present. The Cine VR  is an immersive journey to caves, mines, and landscapes around the Salzkammergut region in 360° videos. For this experience VR headsets are provided at the venues. Sander Saarmets composed the soundtrack of Regional Express for both the train and Cine VR experiences. 

Start your Regional_Express Experience! (EN)

Interview partners:
Katharina Steiner (Salinen Austria AG), Johannes Weidinger (Geologist, Kammerhofmuseum Gmunden), Wolfgang Quatember (Historian Zeitgeschichte Museum Ebensee), Macdonald Chiemezie Nwokeji (Hello Africa! Freies Radio Salzkammergut), Jasmin Grieshofer (Österreichische Bundesforste), Silvia Dinhof Cueto and Leo Kuhn (in remembrance of their fathers), Alexander Savel (Journalist Traunspiegel), Noelia Torres de Glasser (Tourist Guide), Alexander de Goederen (Kurdirektion Buchhandlung), Ines Schiller (Mayor of Bad Ischl), Ariane Herzog (Salinen Austria AG), Guggi Spitzer, Pauline Lahnsteiner Kienesberger & Ingrid Lahnsteiner (Frauenforum Salzkammergut), Bernd Dankelmayr (Mountain Rescue Obertraun), Rikki Müllegger & Konrad Wallinger (Kino Ebensee), Gerhard Wieser (Salinen Austria AG), Shirin Abo Zraa (Spiegel der Seele, Radio Salzkammergut), Margarete Stüger (Ebensee resident), Reverend Dankfried Kirsch (Vicar of Hallstatt)

Actors:
Chris Lohner (train), Manfred Mayer (mountain), Miaoxin Wu (Traunsee Nixe), Yakira Cang (performer, Cine-VR), Gemischter Chor Altmünster, Sander Saarmets, Students Private ORG Vöcklabruck, Gebirgsbirnbambeidler

Voice Overs:
Patrick Lamb, Elizabeth Mortimer, Lisa-Maria Sexl (Voice & Coaching), Christine Rössler, Howard Nightingall, Max Berger, Kai Peterson, Peter Marton, Melanie Grassinger, Noelia Torres de Glasser

Special thanks to:
Edda Hoefer (translations), Sophie Netzer (transcription), Peter Arlt, Martin Heinzl, Georg Rachl (extras) Marie-Sophie Pfeifer, Susanna Burghardt / ÖBB, Ulrike Dirmayer, Stefanie Daubek (Immersive Art Walk)

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Questions are raised such as: What makes a place unique? Who has what desires? Which tourism do we reject and which are we attracted to?

Two-hour hotel visits can be booked – guests can linger at our hotel bar afterwards. The booking package includes regional drinks, a hotel alternative in rainy weather, the hotel bar in a stable and many theatrical surprises.

dasvermutlichbestehotelderwelt.com

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The historical motifs presented are intended to serve international artists as inspiration for the current era to work with the Salzkammergut region of today in photographic-artistic form as a geopolitical space. Photography will be used as an artistic means of expression to create new interpretative, sociocritical, comparative or ideological-political works with an eye on the historical motifs.

Photography is used as a means of artistic expression to recreate interpretative, socio-critical, comparative or ideological-political works with a view to the historical motifs. Special attention is paid to the works’ relation to the region and its inhabitants.

Afterwards at the Mozarteum Salzburg until the end of the year and in 2025 at the Museum of History in Graz.

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The project began with curatorial research and site visits to gain an understanding of each location’s identity and dynamics. Based on this groundwork, the research was extended into the art scene, ultimately leading to the selection of artists invited to develop specific projects for each location. Several artists visited the area, developing ideas and concepts along the way.

A carte blanche, where it was not possible to see at the beginning where the path would lead. Over the course of two years, a wide range of approaches, methods and results emerged, along with exciting processes and twists.

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