Artists & Initiatives
Cooperations 2023
Opening
Conference “verflechtn”
High Time
This year’s Festival of Regions will take place from June 23rd to July 2nd, 2023 in the region along the Summerauerbahn. Under the motto “Höchste Eisenbahn” (High Time), current future issues are at the center of artistic exploration, ranging from the climate crisis to societal coexistence. The Summerauerbahn serves as both the geographical and conceptual starting point for the upcoming Festival of the Regions.
THE REGION & ITS POTENTIAL
The journey as a metaphor
In the 2023 edition of the festival, the railway line, representing a region, metaphorically symbolizes a range of challenges. From public and individual transportation to resource management and the boundaries within our minds, it encompasses various aspects. It serves as a metaphor for traversing, shaping, and reshaping landscapes and societies. It represents overcoming distances, places of encounter and dialogue between regions, cultures, and generations. It signifies breaking away and leaving behind, staying and moving forward, transitions, deceleration, stopping and continuing, something that belongs to everyone and affects everyone. It represents a shared resource.
The train hasn’t left yet,
But it’s high time to set new directions and make changes. It’s high time for us to talk more, come together again, work towards the future, break down barriers, and be open to differences, contradictions, and unconventional approaches. It’s high time to allow for something different.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -> REGION
Regional Integration
The Festival of the Regions is one of the most prestigious contemporary art festivals. For 30 years the festival has been exploring and conquering a region in Upper Austria biennially. In addition to its programmatic approach of bringing contemporary, critical, and sometimes subversive art outside of cultural centers and into the regions, the festival focuses on strengthening and supporting regional initiatives and involving local people in artistic processes and projects.
Involvement from the Czech Republic
For 150 years, the Summerau Railway has connected Upper Austria with the Czech Republic. As a section of the international railway line from Linz through České Budějovice to Prague, it is not just a means of transportation but also a symbol of cross-border exchange.