Next – fine arts club
Walking conference, Steirischer Herbst 08
Saturday, 11th Oct. 2008, 11 am – 5 pm

City Walk – Speed Socializing!

Meeting point and beginning: Festival centre of Steirischer Herbst, Neutorgasse 45

Concept: Dr. Astrid Kury (Academy Graz) and Mag. Luise Kloos (next – fine arts club)
With: Yolanda De Los Bueis (UK), Elisa Marchesini (NL), Christina Medina (CA/A), Bertl Mütter (A), Otto Petrovic (A), Christoph Schwarz (A), Wolfgang Welsch (D) and Sarah Vanhee (NL)
Moderation: Buchgraber & Brandl

The city walk takes place in the panorama of the project As Tide Network, partnership program of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, De Buren, Hangar, next – fine arts club, St. James Cavalier, in collaboration with Love Difference with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.

Which voluntary and involuntary social strategies between connection and disconnection, staying and leaving, exist in this time of mobility and flexibility? The self-awareness tour “speed socializing” takes the group by bus to places in Graz, which communicate an experience of the accelerated dynamism and dissolution of the near and the far, starting from visual globetrotting in Microsoft Visual Earth, to the worldwide network (evolaris private foundation and AVL List GmbH) to the “garbology” at the centre for recycling of the Abfall Entsorgungs- und Verwertungs GmbH Graz. The tour will be accompanied by theoretical and artistic reflections – how social networks are organized in a moving and changing world.
The “nomadology of the 90s” has evolved from a purely theoretical concept to a living reality. Flexibility, once a privilege of the elite, has become an integral part of the individuals of the general public, through economic and political change. Mobility, a privilege and a compulsion, defines our times and is a major challenge of the present. What happens when mobility in all its aspects, from exile and economic migration to flexibility in work, takes control of entire societies?
In any case it increases the importance of social networks, which organize themselves through the independent structures of communication and action of the new media. Networks are the entrance into social participation for those, who are at home, as well as for the new arrivals. Because of the accelerated dimensions in our globalized world, as well as the call for integration, it becomes increasingly important to build relationships quickly, in order to be able to participate socially and economically.
Our present times are marked by acceleration and the breaking of boarders and boundaries. How does mobility change social relationships? What spatially independent networks are created through modern communication technologies and to what extent can they replace old social structures? What is the relationship between our “small social world” and the institutionalized forms of social informational and communicational channels?

Program

12:30 pm: Departure from festival centre, Neutorgasse 45

1. 12:45 pm – 1:15 pm
   Mobile Home – Mobile Phone

   Mobile customer interaction: Lecture by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Otto Petrovic, Institute for information sciences and business informatics, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

   Location: Evolaris next level – private foundation, Hugo-Wolf-Gasse 8/8a: worldwide network – acceleration, aggregation, delimitation – always and everywhere. Is there a technology, which embodies this more than the mobile phone? The evolaris next level private foundation develops new technologies for companies to cope with the changing needs. The artists will experience some of these new technologies.

   … And one surprise!

2. 1:30 pm – 2:15 pm
   Worlds on the Move

   Being Trans-cultural: Lecture by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Welsch, Institute for Philosophy, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

   Location: Vexcel Imaging GmbH | a Microsoft Company, Anzengrubergasse 8/4: Virtual Globetrotting

   We are all familiar with the fact that modern societies consist of groups of people from different ethnical and cultural backgrounds. More importantly, Individuals are internally defined by different cultures. Not only societies, but individuals are trans-cultural. It is this trans-cultural nature of the individual, once recognized and understood, that enables us to cope with the challenges of our trans-cultural society.

3. 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
   Acceleration

   AVL List GmbH, Hans-List-Platz 1: Guided tour through the wind tunnel

   Lunch

   “Trans-lingual Interventions”, a trans-lingual art project by Yolanda De Los Bueis (UK), Elisa Marchesini (NL), Christoph Schwarz (A) and Sarah Vanhee (NL)

   Every untranslatable word is a new idea, a new world. As the bastard child of an art book, a language course, and a linguistic road novel, the “Essential Guide to Trans-lingual Dialogue” is a strictly subjective attempt to enable people from other cultures and languages to experience unique European words – untranslatable words. Trans-lingual interventions during the city walk break through language barriers and include the audience in the performance.

4. 4 pm- 4:45 pm
   Speed Socializing

   AEVG-area, Sturzgasse 8: Garbology

   Dance performance with Christina Medina (CA/A), dance, and Bertl Mütter (A), trombone

   Bertl Mütter: “it’s about getting oriented quickly. (we like to use, especially in future-researching circles, the word nowadays, or, more threatening – who doesn’t make it, stays on the tracks – in the future). dance as movement originating in stillness, and music (the trombone, by definition a “pulling” instrument) tries to conform. where will they reach?”

   Christina Medina: The choreographic work of Christina Medina is coined by an intense examination of the surrounding space and music. She works with precisely defined structure, within which she further examines specific motives and improvisations. The topical approach becomes so abstract, that it is in accord with the surrounding, and opens new possibilities for interpretation to the audience.

Sponsors

We thank for the cooperation of AVL List GmbH, AEVG GmbH Graz, evolaris next level Privatstiftung, Grazer Stadtwerke AG and Vexcel Imaging GmbH | a Microsoft Company.

The city walk takes place in connection with “Love Difference” – a major part of the EU project “AS_TIDE” (Cittadellarte-Biella and next – fine arts club with partners: Hangar in Barcelona, DeBuren in Brussels and St.James Cavalier in Malta), with the support of the cultural program of the European Union.

Biographies

Buchgraber & Brandl (A) … are Martin Buchgraber and Joachim Brandl. The idea for their first cabaret program was conceived, as so many other good ideas, over a good beer. Buchgraber & Brandl had their first public appearance in November 2003, at a casting event for the ATV show “Austria searches its comedy star”. They won the 2nd prize at the “Kleinkunstvogel” competition in Graz in 2004, the 2nd prize at the contest for best new artist in 2005 and the 3rd prize at the „Römer“ competition for cabaret. Their premiere in Vienna took place at the Theatre am Alsergrund on 4th October 2005. Buchgraber and Brandl are still doing very well, with middle-class jobs and have a very ordinary life when not on stage. Almost scary.

Essential Guide to Trans-lingual Dialogue:

Yolanda De Los Bueis (UK) is an artist at the crossroads of experimental video, animation, design and new media

Elisa Marchesini (NL) describes her work as “modern day anthropology” and uses mainly fashion

Christoph Schwarz (A) alienates as media and conceptual artist

Sarah Vanhee (NL) works with theatre, performance, dance and fine art. She sees everyday life as a continuous performance, which triggers an exchange between fiction and reality.

Mag. Luise Kloos (A), artist and founder of next – fine arts club in 1995. Since that time she has organized 12 international artists in residence projects in and around Graz and established an international network or artists. She is member of the European Cultural Parliament and co-founded NUROPE, the nomadic university for art, philosophy and initiative based in Turku, Finland. With the latest project “H.E.I.M.A.T.” she is a partner of the EU art project “As_Tide”, together with Cittadellarte – Biella, Hangar – Barcelona, DeBuren – Brussels and St. James – Malta. Artists and representatives of these organizations will participate in the city walk “speed socializing” in Graz.

Mag. Dr. Astid Kury (A) studied art history and law in Vienna and Graz, and teaches at the institute for art history at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. She also worked for the interdisciplinary research “Modern – Vienna and Central Europe around 1900” at the Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz, from 1994 to 2004. Since November 2006 she is the president of the Akademie Graz.

Christina Medina (CA/A) has been a professional dancer and choreographer for almost 20 years. She used to dance with all important contemporary dance companies in Winnipeg, Canada. Since moving to Graz, she has worked with Rosemary Butcher and Catherine Guerin and focused mostly on solo performances, which have been presented internationally. Her solo performance “am I am” won the 1st prize for choreography at the 10th international solo dance theatre festival in Stuttgart. In 2006 Christina founded the @tendance-Dance Theatre as a stage for contemporary dance in Graz.

Bertl Mütter (A), born in Steyr in 1965, lives and works as freelance musician, composer and writer in Vienna. The solo is at the centre of his musical work and draws from familiar as well as foreign traditions. Bertl Mütter also likes to play in small ensembles, provided the musician listen to each other. He collaborates with writers Franzobel, Josef Haslinger and Gert Jonke, and with light artist Victoria Coeln. His latest works are: „milifagott“; „born. rondo“; „piano sonata“; „holzstück mit blech“; „trombohuwabone“; „muetters dichters liebe“; „muetters muellerin“; „pour elise (oryctérope, bleue) pour un seul cor anglais“; „verborte, geographisch-erotische sonate für sopran und bassflöte“; „6 patriotische excerpte für zwei trombonen“; „einspielen. ausspielen“; „weg. fluchtmusik“; „AEIOU für tiefes quintett“; „passagiere“; „schubert:winterreise:muetter“. www.muetter.at

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Otto Petrovic (A), chairman of the evolaris next level private foundation, Professor at the institute for information science and business informatics at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, visiting professor at the University Tucson/USA, Eindhoven/Holland and Hongkong/China, member of international reviewer boards and program committees. He developed telecom strategies for the administration of Styria, the federal ministry for economy and employment in Austria and the federal ministry for economy and technology in Germany. He was appointed member of the telecom-control-commission by the minister for traffic, innovation and technology of Austria.

Wolfgang Welsch (D), philosopher and postmodern theorist. Since 1998 he is a professor for theoretical philosophy at the University of Jena, after having had professorships in Bamberg and Magdeburg. He was a visiting professor at Stanford University, Emory University in Atlanta and at the Stanford Humanities Centre. He was awarded the Max-Plank Research Award in 1992. He presently focuses his research on: epistemology and anthropology, philosophical aesthetics and art theory, cultural philosophy and the philosophy of the present. Publications: Unsere postmoderne Moderne (1987), Ästhetisches Denken (1990), Vernunft (1995), Grenzgänge der Ästhetik (1996).