Perspektiven
(c) Karin Hackl
(c) Karin Hackl
Over three weeks and four weekends from July 13 to August 4, the Upper Austrian lakeside town of Attersee will host exhibitions, performances, concerts, workshops, fashion, cinema, communal dining and sleepovers as part of the Perspektiven festival. The performance program includes Doris Uhlich, Silke Grabinger and the Rabtaldirlndln as well as Christine Gnigler & Laura-Lee Jacobi with a children's piece.
For the second time, this year's edition is curated by Barbara Gölles and Thomas Kasebacher. We spoke to them about the festival and its performance program.
Choreographic Platform Austria
What is your background and what brought you to Perspektiven?
Barbara Gölles
I am a fashion designer, but always at the intersection with other artistic approaches and curational methods. I've been creating swimwear for almost ten years now. That's how I first came to the festival, from the other side, because I was there with my label as an exhibitor. Thomas accompanied me back then. In the second year, we thought that the festival had so much potential and yet so little was happening. We addressed this quite openly and directly. The people who ran it at the time said, that's fine, we don't want to do it anymore anyway. It all happened quite naturally. We had already had the idea of organizing a festival that combined several disciplines. So we said yes.
Thomas Kasebacher
I come from the world of art. Originally I did performances in Austria and abroad. I have also staged some of them myself. Since the beginning of this year, however, I've been working as a dramaturge at Wiener Festwochen and have therefore put my life as an artist on hold for a while. The Perspektiven festival also played a part in shifting the focus towards the idea of programming and creating something. My last works were already quite curatorial anyway. And I've always worked with other people. So it was quite a predetermined, naturally evolving path.
CPA
The festival is taking place for the 14th time, and you are curating it for the second time this year. What is the origin of Perspektiven, and what is its fundamental idea?
Thomas Kasebacher
Originally, the festival was founded in 2011 by Edith Maul-Röder together with her husband Franz Maul. The idea was to revitalize vacant spaces. At that time, there was still a lot of vacancy, which still exists today, but much of it is now privately owned and not available. Edith Maul-Röder initially worked with photo works and storefronts. In a second step, there were artist residencies that were taking place during the summer. The festival developed from this.
Barbara Gölles
2018, Lydia Haider and Matthias Göttfert took over the management for a few years. Naturally, this resulted in a focus on literature. And then for two years before us, a group of people ran it. That was during Corona, which made it difficult to organzize things.
Thomas Kasebacher
We are now running it alongside our two jobs and, of course, invest a lot of time into developing the festival and putting it back on its feet.
Barbara Gölles
That’s our nature: if you do something, you do it properly, otherwise you shouldn’t do it at all. We want a lot. And that's why it is a lot: we do everything ourselves, from programming, writing texts, to production, coordination, transport... So really almost everything. There is also a graphic designer and a person who has managed the website.
Thomas Kasebacher
And a few volunteers on site, and technicians. But it's also exciting when you do everything yourself. Of course, it also helps that the festival has been around for 14 years. You don't have to start from scratch.
CPA
What are your conclusions from last year? How does the local integration of a festival work, whose fundamental idea was to utilize vacant spaces?
Thomas Kasebacher
Unfortunately, there is hardly any vacant space left. This year, we also lost a location that had been used for a long time. Our solution was to create a temporary structure that could make part of the festival visible and provide us with space that we could utilize. The integration into the local community last year, I would say, was as successful as possible. Generally, it is a rough area.
Barbara Gölles
I believe that both sides exist. There are many well-wishers, such as the volunteers we have on site. They are very supportive.
Thomas Kasebacher
What we are continuing from last year are the meals, because they bring people together at one table. We partly do this with local businesses. This year, there will be four breakfasts. They are connected to a sleepover, but not necessarily. The breakfasts hopefully act as a place where locals can participate and everything comes together.
Barbara Gölles
Fashion is also something accessible, you don't need a deep understanding of art or culture for it. But it can be a vehicle to guide people and explain to them what else is happening at the festival. It can act as an opener. If we only had visual arts, it might sometimes be difficult to find an entry point. It's very important to us not to exclude the local population but, on the contrary, to show them that they are very welcome and create a deliberate mixing of communities.
CPA
What are these sleepovers that you mentioned?
Barbara Gölles
You can stay overnight in an exhibition, and on each Sunday, four different chefs will prepare breakfast on four different weekends. This creates a mix of guests who have slept in the exhibition and others who join them. We always aim to create these clashes deliberately.
Thomas Kasebacher
Everything we do or undertake there somehow relates to hospitality. There is no other way. We come there from the outside, and even though both of us are from rural areas, from Tyrol and Styria, we are not from t. I think we are perceived as Viennese. So, in each of the projects, this concept of hospitality is needed. The sleepover project, for instance, is obviously more aimed at people from outside. But at the same time, it shouldn't be exclusive and should once more facilitate mixing.
CPA
How does the festival generally unfold?
Barbara Gölles
The festival runs for three weeks with continuous programming. There are three exhibitions by three different artists in various locations. Then there's the fashion kiosk, which we're setting up this time as a temporary structure that is extremely visible, right in the middle of an intersection. You can't miss it. And on weekends, there are events from various disciplines.
CPA
What does this year’s theme “Schlechtwetterprogramm" (bad weather program) mean to you?
Barbara Gölles
This arose from a play on words. The festival takes place in an area, the Salzkammergut, where the chance of bad weather is fifty-fifty. So, we always deal with the possibility of bad weather. And what do you do at Lake Attersee when the weather is bad? There's not much around, mainly the lake. That's what we took as our cue: even in bad weather, we have events. On the other hand, in recent years we've seen bad weather globally: climate change, societal upheavals, wars. Here too, we are seeking approaches to find common ground, something that unites us. This was already a theme last year, and we're building on it this year. It aims to convey a positive vision for the future. There's no use in everyone withdrawing — especially in times of upheaval, it's crucial to foster solidarity.
CPA
Could you tell me a bit about this year's performance program?
Thomas Kasebacher
Our guidelines here also emphasize that things must resonate with the place. We could escalate things each year towards provocation and shock, but I believe it doesn't make sense to approach it that way there. It's about how you can engage people and at the same time give them something they have to chew on a bit or must grapple with. And this can happen in various ways. We have Doris Uhlich, for example. She originates from there and although she's generally known for being somewhat scandalous, she's also very good at getting people to engage with her work. Then there are the Rabtaldirndln. Their works are initially quite easy to watch, but on the other hand, there are always depths being conveyed. And then we have Silke Grabinger, who is also from Attersee. Her piece operates on a completely different level; it's very aesthetic with a focus on Bruckner and will actually take place on the day Bruckner was in Attersee 160 years ago. This again tells a story that can help guide people there.
CPA
And additionally there will be workshops?
Thomas Kasebacher
This is also a tool to engage people in a different way.
Barbara Gölles
We have three workshops with different themes. With Natalie Assmann, the theme is loneliness. It plays with the stereotypes that people in the city are all lonely and in rural areas, the family structure is highly valued. However, reality is different; there are also many lonely people in rural areas, especially elderly people. And we also try to include these social layers, not just a young audience.
Thomas Kasebacher
Then there is also a workshop by Doris Uhlich, which is a dance workshop. There is a workshop by two people who live there, about Minimal Wellness. And the Sleepover actually also belongs to the workshop formats. It always takes place from Saturday to Sunday in one of the three exhibitions and is hosted and guided by different people, in a kind of ritual, always unique. We've always seen the exhibition formats as permeable and performative, not just as spaces where paintings hang. That's also the great advantage of performative art, that it is more quickly understandable, or at least more quickly accessible than an exhibition that you then have to navigate yourself.
PERSPEKTIVEN 2024
The Perspektiven 2024 will take place from July 13 to August 4 in Attersee am Attersee. For most events, which are free of entry, the principle of “pay as you wish” applies.
Perspektiven
Upcoming
13.07.-04.08.
Perspektiven 2024
Upcoming
13.07.-04.08.
Perspektiven 2024