steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23
steirischerherbst’23

Humans and Demons

The 56th edition of steirischer herbst festival turns to character-based storytelling to show how people navigate today’s moral gray zones and deal with the demons surrounding them.

→ Concept
→ List of artists

Program

This year, the festival brings together over forty works. Next to performances, the herbst cabaret, artist talks, and discussions, four exhibitions take visitors on a journey of discovery through the city and its history.

→ Calendar
→ Tickets

Festival opening

steirischer herbst ’23 opens with a performance by Lulu Obermayer on Schloßberg. On the first weekend, performances by Mateja Bučar, Adrienn Hód / HODWORKS, Michael Portnoy, and Giacomo Veronesi await the audience—all of which are new commissions.

Humans and Demons

Festival opening
21.9.

The opening days of this year’s steirischer herbst begin at the highest point of Graz, the Schloßberg, and create an imaginary topography of the city. Ceremonies continue with headline performances, discussions, and exhibition openings. Come to Graz to be part of the festivities!

21.9., 17:00
Festival opening, act I
With Ekaterina Degotʼs speech
And Lulu Obermayer, Agoraphobia (2023)
Performance
Uhrturm, Schloßberg

21.9., 18:30
Festival opening, act II
With a political exchange on rules and adaptation
And an inauguration of the director of behavior by Michael Portnoy
Performance
Mariahilferplatz

21.9., 20:30
Adrienn Hód / HODWORKS
Voice of Power (2023)
Helmut List Halle

21.9., 22:00
Feschak Orkeztra (live)
Grrrls DJ Crew (DJ set)
Helmut List Halle (Halle D)

Performances

Major new commissions of performances punctuated the opening days and continued throughout the festival. They ventured into different gray zones, negotiating and exploring troubling ambivalences past and present.

Performance

21.9., 17:00
Lulu Obermayer
Agoraphobia (2023)

Performance

21.9., 20:30
23.9., 19:00
Adrienn Hód / HODWORKS
Voice of Power (2023)

Performance

22.9., 13:00, 16:00
23.9., 24.9., 14:00, 17:00, 20:00
Giacomo Veronesi
Border EUphoria (2023)

Concert

22.9., 19:00
ILYICH

Performance

22.9., 23.9., 22:00
Michael Portnoy
The Society of Societies (A Room with New Rules) (2023)

Performance

23.9., 10:30
Mateja Bučar
Annenlinie (2023)

Performance

29.9., 30.9., 16:00, 17:00, 18:00
Jasmina Cibic
Protocol for Utopia: The Dreams We Call Our Own (2023)

Performance

29.9., 30.9., 19:00
Madame Nielsen
The Silver Dollar Duke Royal Flush Gala (2023)

Performance

28.9., 29.9., 6.10., 7.10., 8.10., 13.10., 14.10., 20:00
Theater im Bahnhof
Das demokratische Abendessen (The Democratic Dinner, 2023)

Exhibitions

Demon Radio

Up in the hills of Graz lies a derelict call center of a mobile phone provider. We imagined it as the premises of Demon Radio, haunted by one of our characters, the ominous and charismatic Dr. Jazz.

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Dr. Jazzʼs Archive

Zuleikha Chaudhari
Rehearsing Azaad Hind Radio (2018)

Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys
Micro Mundo 3, 4, 5, 8, and 10 (2023)
Die Vier von der Tankstelle (The Four from the Filling Station, 2023)

Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich
Onset (2023)

Dani Gal
Book of the Machines (2023)
Dark Continent (2023)

Anton Kats
The Cemetery of Melodies Alive (2023)

Michael Stevenson
Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510 Signs & Wonders (Prerequisite for CS183 How to Build the Future) (2017–23)

Markus Sworcik and René Stiegler
Gedunkelfloxx Obsidian (2023)

Villa Perpetuum Mobile

Especially after its renovation in the 1990s, Forum Stadtpark resembles a modernist villa, an incongruous, maybe even utopian home for dissenters. For steirischer herbst ’23, it became the residence of a dissident’s dissident, the physicist, poet, and erstwhile mental patient Stefan Marinov.

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Stefan Marinov’s Papers

Vadim Fishkin
Dark Times (2019–20)
Windy (2021)

Pedro Gómez-Egaña
The Believers (2019)

Michael Stevenson
Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare (2014–23)

Hollis Frampton
Maxwell’s Demon (1968)

Alice Creischer
Venetin Coliu (2023)

Church of Ruined Modernity

Beginning in the 1960s, the Minoritenkloster became a place of encounters between religion and modern art. One of the artists featured early on was Mira Schendel. She had visited Graz before during the war on a risky journey. Inspired by her phantom presence, the monastery became a Church of Ruined Modernity—representing the continent she left behind.

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Maria Loboda
What’s Best Is Hidden, Obvious, and Correct (2023)

Meg Stuart
Shelf Life (2023)
Circuit Bending (2023)

Andrea Büttner
Karmel Dachau (2019–23)

Eteri Nozadze
Flussschifffahrt (River Cruise, 2023)

AI Images of Mira Schendel in Graz

Pavel Brăila
Event Horizon (2023)

Andreas Fogarasi
Nine Buildings, Stripped (Vorklinik) (2023)
Roof Spares (2023)

Cyprien Gaillard
The Lake Arches (2007–22)

Dana Kavelina
The Lemberg Machine (2023)

Submarine Frieda

Historically, Gries was the lowest part of Graz, which made it prone to flooding. In the world of Humans and Demons, it was buried under layers of waters of the past. At its heart lay the time capsule of Submarine Frieda. But who is Frieda? An accidental, fictitious heroine.

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The Frieda Postcard

Lucile Desamory
Untitledment (2023)

Georg Haberler
Wir sind Frieda (2023)

Shimabuku
When Sky Was Sea (2003–14)

Ideas

This year’s Ideas program encompassed talks with the artists of Humans and Demons, discussions examining the festival’s themes from a philosophical or theoretical perspective, as well literary and curatorial events dealing with the urgent questions of our time.

22.9., 11:00–16:30
23.9., 12:00–15:30
Artist Talks
With Humans and Demons artists

30.9., 17:00
Spiritual Warfare and Revolutionary Demonology
Lain Iwakura, S. Jonathon O’Donnell, and Michael Stevenson in conversation

3.10., 18:00
steirischer herbst at manuskripte
Reading and sound performance
With Franziska Füchsl, Rike Scheffler, Simon Skrepek, Christoph Szalay, and others

6.10., 18:00
Is It for Real?
Peter Sloterdijk in conversation with Slavoj Žižek
steirischer herbst at INDIGO Festival

7.10., 17:00
Demons in the Machine
Orit Halpern and David Riff in conversation

8.10., 11:00–17:00
Curating the Troubled Past
Panel discussions
With Defne Ayas, Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler, Tom Engels, Elisabeth Fiedler, Ruth Noack, and Ares Shporta

15.10., 11:00–14:00
Auf bald in 50 Jahren
(See You in Fifty Years)
Performative panel discussion
With Thomas Geiger, Markus Gönitzer, Christoph Gurk, and others

herbst cabaret

For the second year in a row, steirischer herbst turned to cabaret and its capacity for gritty, gutsy social criticism. Six performances presented a mix of burlesque, street chanson, stand-up, and macabre poetry in the intimate setting of Forum Stadtpark’s basement.

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30.9., 19:00
1.10., 19:00
Julie Béna
Stories of Rivers (2023)

30.9., 20:00
1.10., 20:00
Jessika und Jimmy Khazrik
No Doubt Nisaba (2023)

7.10., 21:00
8.10., 19:00
Stefanie Sourial
Nachlass (2023)

7.10., 22:00
8.10., 20:00
Barbara Juch
Barbara bezahlt bar (2023)

14.10., 21:00
15.10., 19:00
Mikołaj Sobczak
Lutzi Puppe Wutzi (2023)

14.10., 22:00
15.10., 20:00
Selin Davasse
At Your Service (2023)

herbst education

herbst club

Between techno, post-punk, and brass band music, herbst club invited you to dance the night away following performances and herbst cabarets.

→ herbst club

herbst bars

Four herbst bars with different offers allowed visitors to gather at almost any time of the day or night close to most festival locations.

→ herbst bars

Ö1 Festival Podcast

Once again, steirischer herbst was accompanied by its own festival podcast—curated and presented by Ö1.

→ Ö1 Festival Podcast

Festivals-within-the-Festival

ORF musikprotokoll
interconnected | interdependent
5.10.–8.10.

The recent burst of crises calls into question our individualism, which has been driven to extremes by neoliberalism. ORF musikprotokoll invited us to consider our surrounding environment as a dynamic network of relationships that today, perhaps more than ever, needs conscious shaping.

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Exhibition

30.9.–14.10.
Katharina Klement
roaming – Partituren, Skizzen, Hörstationen

Audio sculpture

5.10.–24.10.
Klammer&Gründler
AURICLE

Installation

5.10.–8.10.
noid, Anthea Caddy, and Elisabeth Flunger
disposable instruments – reuse

Concert

5.10., 15:00

konfrontationen 9:
music—common language (?)
With students, musicians, and composers from Styria

Performance

5.10., 14:30
6.10., 7.10., 19:00

Nick Acorne
IX KLA VIER E

Discussion

5.10., 16:15

Sandeep Bhagwati, Liza Lim, Karen Power
musikprotokoll @ ARTikulationen ʼ23—“Researching Across”

Installation

5.10.–7.10., 16:30–23:30
Thea Soti, Christine Schörkhuber, and Verena Dürr
SELTSAMEN /Graz

Performance

5.10., 18:00

Flavia Mazzanti
Beyond My Skin

Concert

5.10., 19:00

Heinali
Organa Quadrupla

Concert

5.10., 19:30

Franziska Thurner, Abby Lee Tee und Manja Ristić
forest floodlights

Performance

5.10., 20:15

SABIWA and Nathan L.
Island no.16 – Memories of Future Landscapes

Concert

5.10., 21:30

Robert Schwarz
OSWYC

5.10., 22:00

Student 3D Audio Production Competition 2023

Concert

6.10., 19:30

Klangforum Wien
Sandeep Bhagwati / Madli Marje Gildemann / Karen Power / Kristine Tjøgersen

Concert

6.10., 21:30

Schallfeld Ensemble
Beat Furrer / Sehyung Kim / Katharina Klement / Carlo Elia Praderio

6.10., 7.10., 23:30

Late-Night musikprotokoll

6.10., 15:30
7.10., 15:00

Honorary Doctorate Awarded to Maryja Kalesnikava

7.10., 10:05

musikprotokoll on air

Concert

7.10., 19:30

RSO Wien
Clemens Gadenstätter / Bernhard Gander / Clara Iannotta / Liza Lim

Concert

7.10., 21:30

Amina Hocine
ātāmon – a life unit

Concert

7.10., 22:00

Gabbeh

Musical theater

8.10., 19:30

Nina Šenk
canvas

Radio essay

8.10., 23:05–23:50

Anna Kravets
An Emotional Encyclopedia of War

Out of Joint
Wer gegen wen?
10.10.–13.10.

Hamlet says: “The time is out of joint,” and he is right: time is still out of joint. Following an idea by German publicist, author, and moderator Roger Willemsen, this year’s edition of the literary festival Out of Joint also took a look at the present from the future. Hamlet changed his question. Now it was no longer: To be or not to be? But rather: Who against whom?

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10.10., 19:00

Birgit Birnbacher
Wer wir waren. Zukunftsrede (Who We Were)

11.10., 18:00

Natascha Strobl
Solidarität (Solidarity)

11.10., 20:00

Dinçer Güçyeter
Unser Deutschlandmärchen (Our German Fairy Tale)

12.10., 18:00

Daniel Wisser
0 1 2

12.10., 20:00

Armen Avanessian
Konflikt: Von der Dringlichkeit, Probleme von morgen schon heute zu lösen
(Conflict: The Urgency of Solving Tomorrow’s Problems Today)

13.10., 20:00

Roboter mit Senf
Die Literaturshow

Partner Program

As always, the festival program of steirischer herbst was accompanied by a rich and varied Partner Program presented by local cultural institutions and artists. Twenty-five projects in Graz and Styria were part of this yearʼs festival.

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