The program for the Capital of Culture 2024 is taking shape

2023-08-04 16:56:00

The program of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl – Salzkammergut 2024 (SKG 2024) is gradually taking shape – 190 projects are being implemented according to the organizers, two thirds of which are of regional origin. Ticket sales will start in September.

After the opening in January, a number of exhibitions on the subject of looted art will be the first focus from March. No major events are scheduled during the summer. The climate issue and various sustainability aspects run through the program.

The official opening will take place on January 20th in Bad Ischl. Under the leadership of Hubert von Goisern and the choir director Susanne Fabian, several hundred singers are supposed to give a loud sign of life in the Capital of Culture. In addition, the main exhibition of the Capital of Culture “imsudhaus salz\wasser\holz & Kunst” begins in the Bad Ischl brewhouse, which is dedicated to the subject of salt and water. On the opening weekend, the Komische Oper Berlin will be making a guest appearance in the Kongresshaus Bad Ischl with the operetta “A woman who knows what she wants” by Oscar Straus.

Several major exhibitions are dedicated to the topic of looted art, in which the Lentos art museum in Linz is cooperating. There, from March 21, the show “Journey of the Pictures” deals with the art treasures that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II and bunkered in tunnels in the Salzkammergut. It will be flanked by other exhibitions: from March 28, the life and work of the art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt, to whom the basis of the Lentos inventory goes, and his Jewish business partner Lilly Christiansen will be illuminated in the Kammerhof Museum in Bad Aussee. Contemporary positions can be seen in Lauffen/Bad Ischl from April 19, and cartoons by Simon Schwartz on the subject of looted art can be seen from March 22 in the Steinberghaus in Altaussee.

Little program in summer

The major exhibitions continue throughout the summer, otherwise the program tends to simmer on a low flame in the high season. The Salzkammergut is then full of guests anyway, according to the tourism experts, and there are also established cultural offerings such as the Salzkammergut Festival Weeks in Gmunden.

From the end of August, artists will be dealing with climate change as part of “Green”. “Simple Smart Buildings” includes several workshops on traditional building materials between spring and autumn, the “Analog Festival” from September 6th to 14th in Bad Goisern is looking for strategies to slow down.

Among the concert and theater events, the children’s opera project “Saltice – Salt and Ice” from February 17th to 25th at the ALFA in Laakirchen and an Attwenger gig on the Dachstein stand out. On June 15, the Bruckner Orchestra will perform with choir support in the Saline in Ebensee (“Bruckner’s Salt”).

There are also festival formats such as the “European Theater Festival digital and analog” or the “New Salt Festival” for electronic music.