2023-12-18 04:35:04
The “European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024” will officially open on January 20th. The artistic planning of this major event, which the EU has awarded to Austria for the third time, and in which, after Graz in 2003 and Linz in 2009, 23 Salzkammergut communities from Upper Austria and Styria can now adorn themselves with the title, has been in the hands of Elisabeth Schweeger since July 2021 . In an interview with the APA, she describes her experiences and expectations.
APA: Ms. Schweeger, you are a native of Vienna. How well did you know the Salzkammergut and what have you learned about the region in the past two and a half years?
Elisabeth Schweeger: I know the Salzkammergut quite well. My grandparents were in Salzburg. We had a house in St. Gilgen and we spent a lot of time there. It’s an incredibly beautiful region where you have the feeling that everything is going perfectly anyway. But if you take a closer look, you can also see the deficits that all rural areas have developed in recent years. This is a phenomenon across Europe, and that is why it is interesting to deal with this area.
APA: The people here in the Salzkammergut often think they are different from the others. Can you confirm that?
Schweeger: In rural areas there is always an attachment. It is also available here. It is also historically determined. But this kind of rebelliousness is also likeable, leads to good conversations and ultimately to interesting results.
APA: Society is facing major transformations. What role should culture play and what opportunities does an event like the European Capital of Culture offer?
Schweeger: 40 years ago, Melina Mercouri and Jack Lang’s basic idea when they invented the Capital of Culture was that art is the foundation of a society. You can notice that here too: If you give the existing potential space to develop, it is an incredible input for future visions. Then opportunities arise to build prospects for young people, not to run away, but to stay. It’s about proving in this rural area that it is a future space, a space of possibility – and that is exemplary for the whole of Europe.
APA: The label is called “European Capital of Culture”. How often have you had to explain to people that places like Laakirchen or Obertraun can now call themselves the capital?
Schweeger: The discovery process was a challenge for everyone, including seeing: What can I do with this title? What opportunities does it offer, for example to get a voice in the political sphere for projects that are necessary to drive the region forward. The interesting thing is how everything is connected: economics, politics, the creative scene, social issues. Everything is interconnected and depends on each other. Change really only happens with a shared impulse!
APA: A lack of commonality was part of the bad headlines that the Capital of Culture received in the early stages. How did you manage to calm that down?
Schweeger: By talking, sitting down, demanding that we sit down at the table. At some point they realized that together we are stronger and can develop more effectiveness, and that all communities have similar problems – whether that concerns climate change, mobility issues or infrastructure issues. How do you give the creative scene free space, how can you involve people on site in a participatory manner, how do you deal with soil sealing and vacancies? I think there was a conscious process that brought them together. The Capital of Culture has already achieved something.
APA: Isn’t it absurd to need leverage over Brussels to bring neighboring communities to greater cooperation?
Schweeger: It’s not absurd, it’s simply an instrument. And Europe must also know what a great instrument it has at its disposal here. The Salzkammergut is like an example for Europe. On a small scale, it formulates what Europe could actually do if it developed the will to work together rather than against each other.
APA: The Salzkammergut is a region that is very much defined by tourism. That’s why the original concept focused on dealing with overtourism, which is particularly blatant in Hallstatt. How much of it is left?
Schweeger: A lot. What is tourism actually about? A stranger comes and looks at a country. He brings his culture with him and encounters a culture he doesn’t know. It is actually a principle of exchange and dialogue. That’s why we called it “Sharing Salzkammergut” and added “The Art of Traveling” because it’s about a kind of deceleration. We have oriented a lot in this direction and tried to point out that it is worth coming to the Salzkammergut in the off-season. It’s also worth staying here. It’s about creating attractions beyond tourism so that young people have prospects. The main problem is brain drain. You can try to counteract this with such cultural programs.
APA: Every Capital of Culture program operates in the area of tension between international and local. How did this conflict in the Salzkammergut end?
Schweeger: I believe that the conflicts arise because people say: Why does he get something and why don’t I get anything? But that is a normal process. There were over 1,000 submissions to the open call. On the one hand, this is incredibly good because it shows that there is a will for creativity in the area. But we also knew that we could only implement a fraction of it. There are many reasons for this, but especially financial ones. We then tried to set up a marketplace of ideas where people could exchange ideas and meet funding agencies in order to set up the projects beyond the Capital of Culture. Ultimately, the Capital of Culture is an inspiration that says what is possible. And a lot is possible here. All year round.
APA: You are starting as the first of next year’s three cultural capitals. What can people expect when they come to Bad Ischl for the opening?
Schweeger: A celebration. The region is celebrating after several years of hard work. She celebrates herself, she celebrates the guests, she celebrates the artists. It’s about letting go, having a nice time, enjoying it and watching great artists.
APA: Which highlights should you definitely not miss?
Schweeger: It’s difficult to ask the program manager something like that because, of course, I think many projects are good. You have to get on the train, then you see all the empty train stations that suddenly become artistic meeting places with artists in residence or small tavern laboratories. You should look at the really great exhibition with Chiharu Shiota in the tunnel in Ebensee. At the opening you can watch an operetta by Oscar Straus directed by Barrie Kosky, “A Woman Who Knows What She Wants”. You can watch “Urlicht” with Franui, who adapts Mahler together with an Australian circus troupe. There are enough great exhibitions, such as a comic exhibition with Simon Schwartz in the Steinberghaus in Altaussee, or “Salt and Water” in the brewhouse, where you can see that you can activate empty buildings. In Gmunden you will see the city gardening center developing into an art district, just as the craft house in Bad Goisern is establishing itself internationally. A number of museums are being relaunched, such as the city museum in Bad Ischl or the literature museum in Altaussee. There is a great exhibition on art theft, “The Journey of Pictures”…
APA: Why can’t this exhibition of all things be shown in the region, but instead has to be moved to Lentos in Linz?
Schweeger: Tell me whether there is a museum here that has the necessary climate and safety conditions? That does not exist here. But maybe that will develop. We are working with Linz, Salzburg and Graz to point out that these three large cities contribute to the Salzkammergut and are also fed by it. There are some collaborations there. I wanted that so that you could see how everything is connected and interconnected.
(The interview was conducted by Wolfgang Huber-Lang/APA)
ABOUT PERSONALITY: Elisabeth Schweeger was born on March 24, 1954 in Vienna and studied comparative literature and philosophy in Innsbruck, Vienna and Paris. From 1993 to 2001 she was artistic director of the Marstall and chief dramaturge at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, then director of the Schauspiel Frankfurt until 2009. From 2009 to 2015 she directed the Herrenhausen Art Festival in Hanover, and from 2014 to 2022 she was artistic director and managing director of the Academy for Performing Arts in Baden-Württemberg. In 2021 she was appointed artistic director of the Cultural Capital Bad Ischl – Salzkammergut 2024 GmbH.
(S E R V I C E – www.salzkammergut-2024.at/ )
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