Syndicate: Steirischer Herbst 1997

[kathy rae huffman <kathy@thing.at> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

Steirischer Herbst 97 "Social Bodies"
25 September - 31 October, Graz, Austria

An annual international festival of art, literature, theater and music,
more than 32 exhibitions, symposia, performances are scheduled
throughout Styria, mainly in Graz. The Festival is held every Autumn in
Graz, this year's pre-program is online at:
http://www.stherbst.at/vor97_2.html

ZONEN DER VER-STâ?¦RUNG (Zones of Disturbance)

27 Sept - 31 Oct: Zones of Disturbance, the international exhibition
curated by Silvia Eiblmayr will be on view at the Marieninstitut, Graz.
Internet and CD ROMS selected by Kathy Rae Huffman, and a Reading Room,
created by Thomas Brandstetter, will host Internet terminals, computer
workstations with bookmarks of e-zines, artists websites, real books and
a good cup of coffee.

The pre-program is online at:
http://www.stherbst.at/V_zonen.html#english

CURATORIAL Statement:

The "Zones of Disturbance" address everyday phenomena, the stuff of the
media: commodities, advertisement, consumption, career, family, tourism,
sexuality, illness, psychosis, accidents, racism, crime, terrorism, war.
The artists in this exhibition are working on overlapping socio-cultural
"fields of syndromes" in an attempt to study what effects and affects
accompany the radical transformations of the geopolitical and economic
situation.

An increasingly brutal capitalism and new technologies of the
ever-faster transfer of goods, information and media has led to a
collision of modern and postmodern activities, of real and virtual
bodies and thus also to a potential of threatening uncertainty which the
"zones" are all about.

At issue are two inseparably linked phenomena: "Stšrung" (interference")
as a sort of oppositional intervention and "Verstšrung" ("disturbance"
or "confusion") as reactive affect, as irritation. Both are equally
informed by a media-dictated fusion of reality and fiction, as the
presented works clearly show. For the artistic strategies and the means
employed this implies that photography, video and film projections,
hypertextual forms and multimedia CD-Roms as well as the electronic data
networks dominate this exhibition.

Dr. Silvia Eiblmayr, Zonen der Ver-Stšrung curator


Kathy Rae Huffmam's personal comment:
The Zones of Disturbance exhibition is an exciting opportunity to see a
strong international selection of installations.  These works all use
media techniques (42! installations), that reflect upon and analyze the
vastness of our 'media-dictated' and influenced IRL reality.  A full
color catalogue, a series of performance events, readings & lectures and
a symposium are designed to follow the themes expressed by Dr. Eiblmayr
more deeply, and to provoke a public forum for response to issue-based
artwork.  We invite you to visit the exhibition, virtually if you are
unable to come to Graz. The website will be updated regularly to include
documentation of performances, and images from the actual
installations.


OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHTLIGHTS:

27 September - 12 October
Sex & Space II, a workshop on gender, space and representation, will
bring women together from around Europe, with activists of the Graz
Women«s Project

4 October, in the Marieninstitut,
MAMAX will present a  KONSUM DJ lecture event,
Transform¯ativ ,which connects Internet server communication and live
audio production by Internet processes, in a theory performance.

10 & 24 October, at Reininghaus,
Granular Synthesis will present Areal A, a new psychotisches live
event. Their former work Modell 5 has been shown around the world to
enthusiastic audiences.

28 - 31 October, in the Telekommunikationszentrum of the PTA,
Knowbotic Research re-presents their Net Installation project, Anonymous
Muttering: on dis/place/ment, is an impressive sound and light
environment.

For additional festival information:

FestivalbŸro / Festival office
steirischer herbst
Sackstrasse 17/I
Tel.: + 43 316 823007
Fax: + 43 316 835788
Mo Fr: 10.00 18.00
25. 9. - 31. 10. auch Sa + So:
11.00 - 18.00
e-mail: stherbst@ping.at
http://www.stherbst.at