PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE
A FESTIVAL OF THE FUTURE LAB
On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, the Wiener Festwochen festival is inviting participants to sketch out scenarios for possible futures. As part of a four-day lab session, researchers and students from five universities, artists, and members of the public will come together to consider the positioning of festivals yesterday, today and tomorrow, in lectures and discussions as well as performance, installation and acoustic interventions. With the help of the Festwochen archive, they will retrace the festival’s chequered history and, together, draw up visions of the Festival of the Future: as a place of planned unpredictability.
Admission free / Registration by indicating the days on which you wish to take part, along with your name and phone number at festivallabor@festwochen.at
On the terrain vague of the disused Nordwestbahnhof railway station, four topics are to be explored across four days (attended individually or successively). The focus will be firmly on unpredictable encounters. At the Tandem Talks, experts in all sorts of fields – from art and architecture to robotics and quantum physics – will meet for the first time. Choreographer Anne Juren will get each day underway with an imaginary quest for the ‘fantastical anatomies’ of any festival. Young authors will dispatch participants on audio walks. And students and lecturers from various disciplines ranging from cultural studies to sociology will offer an insight into their semester projects during which they looked at the past and the future of the festival through the Festwochen archive.
In the run-up, the Festwochen will present for the first time an ONLINE ARCHIVE which, in a first step, provides access to the programme booklets from 1951 to 2021, with further material to be added to the inventory in the years to come. And in their essays, cultural theorist Aleida Assmann and theatre historian Theresa Eisele examine the role of archives in the performing arts and the history of the Festwochen respectively.
Artist, curator, and culture manager Nicola Scherer teaches and conducts research into festival studies at the University of Hildesheim. Her dissertation focused on international theatre festivals and their strategies with regard to cultural policy. Since 2006, she has performed with the ‘space ensemble’ collective in, among others, Berlin, Braunschweig, Vienna and San Francisco.
Theresa Eisele is a theatre scholar and author. She studied in Leipzig, Madrid and Vienna, and is currently conducting research on the history of theatre in Vienna in the modern era and theatre-based thought models that pertain to society. In 2021 she became a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Theatre Studies at the Free University Berlin. Her book Szenen der Wiener Moderne. Drei Artefakte und ihre Vorstellungswelten des Jüdischen was recently published as part of the Leipzig toldot series.
Further Information
Thursday, September 9th
UNPREDICTABLE SPACE(S)
1 pm to 7pm
Festival spaces are as real as they are imaginary. Where does the festival of the future take place? What thought spaces does it open up? To what sort of content and aesthetics does it lend space? Experts in scenography, urban planning, architecture, sociology, and journalism will examine the festival’s relationship with the city, take an inquisitive look at non-Western concepts of public space, and situate the festival of the future.
Following the day programme, MITTEN AM ABEND offers keynotes, performances and music with free admission.
Friday, September 10th
UNPREDICTABLE ENCOUNTER(S)
1 pm to 7pm
A festival creates encounters and establishes communities. Who gets to meet who? And who is left out? Who gets to watch – and who gets to take part? How does a festival shape social togetherness, both within the context of its performances and beyond? Artists, AI researchers, and art and cultural mediators all enter into dialogue as they set about encountering the festival of the future – between physical and virtual co-presence and co-creation.
Following the day programme, MITTEN AM ABEND offers keynotes, performances and music with free admission.
Saturday, September 11th
UNPREDICTABLE TIME(S)
1 pm to 7pm
A festival is about time fashioned, with the past and the future, tradition and innovation culminating in the festival’s present. How does the festival of the future relate to a society’s time economy? How does it define contemporaneity? Art and culture scholars, artists, sociologists, and quantum physicists set out in search of a festival in touch with the times.
Following the day programme, MITTEN AM ABEND offers keynotes, performances and music with free admission.
Sunday, September 12th
UNPREDICTABLE PRACTICE(S)
1 pm to 7pm
How does the festival of the future go about taking the plunge into the unknown, but with a sense of curiosity and fun? How does it trigger open-ended processes, create flexible production conditions, and encourage artists to take risks? Artists explore the requirements and conditions of creative output, with assistance from art collectors, ethicists, and plant philosophers.
Following the day programme, MITTEN AM ABEND offers keynotes, performances and music with free admission.
Further Information
Credits
Moderation Nicola Scherer Scientific accompaniment Theresa Eisele
Dates & Tickets
September 2021
Admission free / Registration by indicating the days on which you wish to take part, along with your name and phone number at festivallabor@festwochen.at
Admission free / Registration by indicating the days on which you wish to take part, along with your name and phone number at festivallabor@festwochen.at
Admission free / Registration by indicating the days on which you wish to take part, along with your name and phone number at festivallabor@festwochen.at
Admission free / Registration by indicating the days on which you wish to take part, along with your name and phone number at festivallabor@festwochen.at
brut nordwest
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
accessible
Event recommendations
Stine Janvin / Ula Sickle / Persis Bekkering
The University of Rave: What can we learn from the party?
Laia Fabre, Thomas Kasebacher / notfoundyet, Felix Schellhorn
Caldo
brut all over Vienna
brut nordwest
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
accessible
studio brut
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
not accessible
WUK performing arts
barrierefrei
Währinger Straße 59, 1090 Vienna
Subway: U6 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), Tram: 40, 41, 42 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), 5, 33 (Spitalgasse), 37, 38, 40, 41, 42 (Spitalgasse / Währinger Straße)
Der Betrieb
accessible
Vogelweidplatz 13, 1150 Wien
Subway: U6 (Burggasse-Stadthalle) / Bus: 48A (Moeringgasse) / Tram: 9 (Camillo Sitte Gasse)