Part 3, The festival Steirischer Herbst on search for Strategies of Avoiding Misfortune. (en) - a podcast by CastYourArt.com

Steirischer Herbst - Strategies of Avoiding Misfortune

Misfortune comes in various forms, as well as the possibilities for avoiding misfortune. Saving or watching television, loving or pigging out instead, or perhaps sleeping together. Being moderate, recognizing can also help, sometimes deceiving, patching things up in emergencies, to keep things together, to come out in a big way or then saving the world nevertheless? In its 41st year, Steirischer Herbst, the contemporary art festival in Graz, is in search of strategies for avoiding misfortune.

On election posters, smiling faces and condensed strategies of avoiding misfortune that can end up belittling the most complex of issues. Every claim that emerges out of the consumer repertoire advertises a magic cure for avoiding misfortune: whiter teeth, low-fat sausages, shorter stopping distances. But this strategy also depends on our ability, to formulate it carefully, a sceptical faith in walking a tightrope of possibilities.

What has does this strategy have to do with this kind of faith? Is it justifiably nurtured and how so? Productions of Steirischer Herbst place examples of avoiding misfortune both in both small as well as big spotlights. They thereby illuminate questions and nuances regarding such strategies, investigate them, often along with the participation of the public as well as scientific research, and always though the participation of local and international artists and institutions for art. In our three-part report, we preview a repertorical look at the festival. In terms of strategies for avoiding misfortune, the strategy for a festival and the strategy for life can be quite similar, according to Florian Malzacher, the head program director for Steirischer Herbst. (wh/jn)

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