Festival der Regionen 2019
Social Warmth

28. June - 07. July 2019
Region Perg-Strudengau, Oberösterreich

The Region of Perg-Strudengau will provide the setting for the Festival of the Regions 2019. With its 24 municipalities in southeast Mühlviertel, the region brings together a multitude of different landscapes and living spaces. A breathtakingly beautiful region extends from the south with its fertile, meadowy landscape to the north with its soft, forested knolls. […]

The Region of Perg-Strudengau will provide the setting for the Festival of the Regions 2019. With its 24 municipalities in southeast Mühlviertel, the region brings together a multitude of different landscapes and living spaces. A breathtakingly beautiful region extends from the south with its fertile, meadowy landscape to the north with its soft, forested knolls. The everyday lives of people in Perg-Strudengau are shaped in many ways by the preservation of natural resources, the fostering of the regional identity and community through an openness to both new things and newcomers (zuagroaste), as well as through economic collaborations. With the “Region Of Awareness,” consisting of the three municipalities of Mauthausen, Langenstein, and St. Georgen an der Gusen, the region also actively and critically grapples with Austria’s darkest historical period. The Festival of the Regions 2019 will link all of these facets of regional history together for developing a touching, sensorial collective account of togetherness.

With the topic of “social warmth,” the festival focuses on a current sociopolitical issue. As a counterpoint to the widespread claims of “social coldness,” we want to give the stage to togetherness, empathy, and respect. Many of the festival’s projects will be developed with locals from the region. By allowing oneself to become engaged in something, taking part, getting infected, and being touched by other people’s life stories, we break down our personal boundaries and are able to open our eyes so that we can see the people standing in front of us. When enemies become friends, there is no longer space for coldness. That concerns interpersonal relationships just as much as it does lawmaking and politics.

In accordance with the festival motto, we are making an effort regarding inclusivity on all levels. We offer translations in Austrian sign language and the greatest possible barrier-free accessibility regarding both spaces and media. By using the “pay-as-you-can” principle, we are trying to make it possible for everyone to partake in the festival regardless of their “buying power,” because for us, the access to art and culture is a human right!

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Opening Festival der Regionen 2019

Booking Shuttlebus from Perg Hauptplatz (via Kriegergut) to Gusen – if you have questions please contact: shuttle@fdr.at or +43 (0) 670 4073447 Part 1 – St. Georgen / Gusen Ort: Meeting at the entrance of„Bergkristall“ in Gusen 4:30 Arrival of guests 4:45 artist talk: Christoph Mayer chm & Andreas Hagelüken, Host: Gudrun Blohberger, Translation into Sign Language: […]

Alte Böden, neue Standbeine

“Old Terrain – New Pillars” looks at the transformations of family-run farms. The festivalguests have the opportunity to visit nine different farms in Perg-Strudengau and experience artistic interventions by the Dutch artist Wapke Feenstra that give insight into the living and working conditions of farmers. The artist, who grew up on a farm herself, visited […]

ASAGAN – Neue Donaugeschichte(n) aus Grein

Do you know the tale of the Danube diamonds? Or the one about Blondel, who searched for Lionheart? Have you found the Nibelungen egg yet? These and more stories are depicted in the fifth book of the ASAGAN-series, which is scheduled for release in October 2019. Recognized as “one of Austria’s most beautiful books,” the […]

© Jens Alpermann

Das Unsichtbare Lager – Audioweg Gusen

© Jens Alpermann Since 2007, the “walkable sculpture” AUDIOWEG GUSEN has represented the hidden memory of a region. In 2018, a residential building was constructed on the grounds of former concentration camp Bergkristall, literally cutting off the route to visitors. To secure the permanent existence of this unique artwork, the final section has been rebuilt […]

Barriers: Where they are constructed, how we take them down.

10% of the population considers barrier-free accessibility to be “indispensable,” 30-40% consider it “necessary,” and 100% considers it “convenient.” Led by this basic premise, the Perg municipality would like to make barrier-free accessibility possible for everyone. The topic is multifaceted, complex, and contradictory, though. How do barriers come into being? Where should one start taking […]

Centriphery Bike Ratchet Hike

A Cooperation with the artists and experts: Theresa Böck, Veronika Mayer, Christian F. Schiller, Petra Sturm Centriphery invites the audience to an exciting cycling performance, which develops its own perspective on the region and the landscape of the Machland, navigating various locations and landscapes and making them into a stage. The bicycle, wheelchair, and other […]

Crazy Bus

A play by and with 13 people with special needs. It is about an insane Bustrip to impossible destinations. The Crash is unavoidable… The play refers to the questionableness of targeted aims and wishes, that shall fulfill personal happiness. What’s left are a rainbow, awakening and silence. Idea and Direction: Ingrid Gruber-Seiberl Please reserve your […]

CouRage

Katsdorf media artist and director Gerald Harringer gathered stories in the Perg-Strudengau region, gathering stories from the past and present on the topic of civic courage, which can be experienced as a sound collage during two-hour bus tours. The stories talk about standing up for someone, practicing disobedience, defending oneself, taking a stand, expressing one’s […]

Death and Birth in my Life

“Death and Birth in My Life” is Mats Staub’s new long-term project. He investigates the existential experiences related to processes of being born and dying, of life’s beginning and life’s end. Mats Staub, therefore, brings two people together in the location of each presentation and lets them start a conversation with him present as an […]

Die Gütigen

“The Kindly Ones” celebrates its world premiere in Austria at the Festival of the Regions 2019. Directed by internationally renowned Elli Papakonstantinou, it is performed at the Mauthausen Memorial, and is intended as a strong political and social statement on the current developments and rise of not only right-wing populism but also right-wing radicalism and […]

Dorf TV – Durchlauferhitzer

Dorf TV is taking the topic of the Festival as its impetus for tackling the broad subject of “social warmth” in the media. The Upper Austrian television station Dorf TV will thus record and broadcast debates and questions on the topic of social warmth in various formats. Dorf TV will be out and about in […]

Du bist, was du isst! – You are what you eat!

“You Are What You Eat” is a participatory art project in the Perg-Strudengau region. It creates a space for debates on how food is produced, distributed, and consumed. In collaboration with local residents and local experts, the south Italian artist Alessia Rollo will organize events on the topic of eating, food, and food chains. The […]

Eine Tonne 2.0

Achtung: Projekt wird im Rahmen der diesjährigen Vienna design week umgesetzt / ausgearbeitet.

Inhalt:
Ein sanftes Händereichen zwischen Samen und Butterbrot, zwischen Bauer und Brotliebhaber.

Eine künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema Entlohnung in der Landwirtschaft in Form einer dreidimensionalen Installation.

 
A Ton aims to creat/spark a dialog between producer and consumer. Based on the price a farmer gets for a ton of wheat this three dimensional installation aims to support a discussion about food resources and fair payment in agriculture.

Frauenwelten

The artworks in the exhibition “Women’s Worlds” deal with the lives of women in Iran and Iraq. Along with her photographs, Elisa Andessner is showing her video work “messages” from 2018/19, in which she asked women in Teheran about their current situations, desires, messages and interweaves them with the legal situation of women in Europe. […]

FREIgang

somom – song of myself or (m)other is an annual inventory of the common existences of Katrin and Felicitas Wölger as mother and daughter and as women artists. somom 6 / FREIgang is about otherness, alterity and the self-assertion of a society. Katrin and Felicitas Wölger will travel all across the Perg-Strudengau region by bus, […]

Ge_Wanden

A group from the University of Applied Arts Vienna will walk along the Danube from Mauthausen to Grein, carrying a frame comprised of vertical ties and knots. The project will connect people and institutions on this journey, who will – literally – link. In collaboration with both visitors and locals, the hike will progress along […]

Genau!

The celebratory opening will be created by Ondamarela and the people of the region. An orchestra – formed in workshops with Tim Steiner and Ricardo Baptista in the months leading up to the Festival – consisting of local residents, will bring together people of all ages and culture backgrounds with and without previous musical training […]

Cannot make out your Flags, come nearer

The students and teachers of the department of Experimental Art from the University of Art and Design Linz – led by Anna Jermolaewa – will spend their time in St. Nikola and its vicinity. They invite the local residents and visitors to work together to set up the exhibition. Through the temporary appropriation of open […]

Ich bin ein Reisender – KUNST.KOFFER

A suitcase can be a place for safekeeping the past, and can be seen as synonymous to the existential questions of “where do I come from and where am I going?” That’s why the suitcase was chosen for transporting the 50-year history of Lebenshilfe Oberösterreich to a broader public in the form of an art […]

Kriegergut OpenAir

Bereits zum zweiten Mal veranstaltet das Kriegergut ein OpenAir-Konzert in sommerlichem Ambiente. For the second time already, Kriegergut is hosting an OpenAir-Concert in summery ambience. Internationally renowned Attwenger and Sofa Surfers will perform. Attwenger shines with their minimalistic mix of traditional and Afro-American influences, integrating singsong in the Upper Austrian dialect, while Sofa Surfers never […]

Mein Jihad – A Monodrama

“We are the name we take on, but we are not responsible if someone misuses it.” “My Jihad” is a monodrama by Jihad Al-khatib. Through humor, he tells the story of a young man who is confronted with numerous challenges in Austria, not least because of his first name. Jihad was born in Saudi Arabia […]

Mia gengan midanaund und spün midanaund!

In a historical moment of great disorientation, music becomes the vehicle of peace and intercultural dialogue. The project aims at the meeting of the Salento band tradition, represented by BandAdriatica with those of the Austrian regions hosting the festival. Workshop with local bands for an exchange of repertoires, classes for young musicians, and a final concert that will involve all the participants in a great band that will first play in the streets and then perform on stage.

N.O.A.H. Galactica

The “N.O.A.H. Galactica,” a permanently docked spaceship made from wood and metal and boarded with art producers from Linz, will land in central Perg. Departing from the Biblical story of Noah’s Arc as an act of “social warmth,” the “N.O.A.H. Galactica” will create a space for discussing the future of our planet and the salvation […]

Perg er.lesen

Words make a mark. Words can dignify or indignify people and their living situations. Words are signs of the “social climate.” They are interpreted, given meaning, lose meaning, are flipped around to take on their opposite meaning. Authors from the PromOtheus literary circle will read their pieces on the “social climate” in order to stimulate […]

Poetry Slam

A poetry slam is a competition consisting of spoken word performances meant to win over an audience. Self-written material is thus performed in the most spirited and compelling way possible in order to enrapture the audience. Poetry can be rhymed, rapped, and told in heartwarming and emotional ways. Whether contemplative or comical, any type of […]

Ruf gegen die Grenze

Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics (transparadiso) see the middle of the Danube, the floating border between Upper and Lower Austria, as an opportunity for “overcoming” borders. Questions of symbolic or societal borders, exclusions, demarcations, containment, and the potential for overcoming borders played a central role in many workshops with residents, musicians, authors, singers, everyday performers, […]

Soziale Wärme auf Mühlviertlerisch

NO ONE IS EVER BETTER OFF, JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE HAS NOTHING. As part of “Social Warmth in Mühlviertelese,” words are displayed in vinyl letter applications in public spaces of the region. Anna Maria Brandstätter translates and thereby reflects on the topic of the festival in many different areas of the region and invites visitors […]

Soziale Wärme im Gespräch

Soziale Wärme im Gespräch

Renata Schmidtkunz is one of the most compelling interviewers in the country. She will attend the Festival, conducting numerous live interviews in the festival center as journalist-in-residence. She will carry out discussions with the artists and other Festival guests on “social warmth” and the ongoing productions and exhibitions. Discussions on topics that affect every one […]

Texts for Human Rights

Prior to the festival, workshops focusing on human rights will be offered. The 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be made visible through the creative statements formulated by the participants. A new Walk of Human Rights will be established between the Mauthausen Train Station and St. Georgen/Gusen. For each of the […]

Väter

An evening in two parts. “Who Killed My Father” by Édouard Louis (FR) (First Austrian reading) Based on the work: QUI A TUÉ MON PÈRE Copyright (c) 2018, Édouard Louis All rights reserved “The Father“ by Stéphanie Chaillou (FR) (German language premiere) The expansion of neoliberal politics has caused the development of a new precariat. […]

Volxfest

In an atmosphere that playfully revitalizes traditional cultural assets such as folk dance, folk music or traditional garb, declaring them to be fields of experimentation, we will celebrate, dance and approach folk art as a space for freely developing creative expression. Highlights of the evening will include folk music ensemble “Aasgeiger”, regional Schuhplattler dancers, a […]

Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen

500 escaped prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp were hunted down, shot, beaten to death, and killed in savage ways by the SS, Hitler Youth, Volkssturm (home guard), and the local population of the surrounding Mühlviertel region on the night of February 1st, 1945, and over the following weeks. In 1994, the Upper Austrian writer […]

Wärmegreißlerei

The Wärmegreißlerei will travel throughout the region of Perg-Strudengau as a mobile kiosk, collecting different voices on the topic of social warmth. Beforehand, the questions of which negative effects a lack of social warmth could have on a society and which effective counter-perspectives could exist for preventing them will be developed with local residents, schools, […]