This was WIENWOCHE 2016

A video-review by Adnan Popovic

forever together

ZAUVEk ZAJEDNO ° FÜR IMMER ZUSAMMEN ° POR SIEMPRE JUNTOS ° SONSUZA DEK BERABER ° معا إلى الأبد

WIENWOCHE takes place for the fifth time in September (16. 9. – 25.9. 2016). 

With the title ‘FOREVER TOGETHER. Politics of Connection, Love and Friendship’, it proposes a break to show where things do bloom and please our hearts, at least most of the time.

WIENWOCHE 2016 creates a space which focuses on ‘ordinary’ accounts of connection, love and friendship that we celebrate as something very special. Why? Because these are political forces that we have and we will need more of them as these times show. When ignorance and oppression rise, our capacity to contest them grows as well. We do so in everyday life and we do it at WIENWOCHE 2016:  in networks of support, circles of friends, activist groups, artistic projects as well as in bars, streets, at market places, theatres, at the hairdresser’s, in a time machine, just to name a few spaces and places that we inhabit.

About the WIENWOCHE 2016 programme

One goal of WIENWOCHE is to create new political-artistic-activist networks and to support existing ones. We are therefore proud of ‘repetition’, which for us also means showing continuity: for instance, the project contributions by Protest Production Collective, which was created in the context of refugee protest movement, and this year continues its project to overcome borders. WIENWOCHE 2016 brings a fresh breeze, causing ideas and actions to swirl through the city.

In 2016, ‘FOREVER TOGETHER’ follows two approaches:

nine of eleven projects produced by WIENWOCHE 2016 have been selected as a result of an open call. Additionally, two open work groups – #L0V3_H4CK1N6 as well as Cantina Corazón – have been initiated by the festival directors and are an invitation to everyone to simply join and hence be(come) part of WIENWOCHE 2016. We wanted to experiment with forms of being together beyond the usual procedures of selection in a cultural field. The results were Cantina Corazón [Cantina Corazón], a mobile bar and cuddling corner, a place to open the heart, for people like you and me – and #L0V3_H4CK1N6 [Love Hacking], a place to ‘date’, sleep together or ‘hack’ the virtual and real economies of love during this 24-hour challenge, and refrain from sleeping altogether.

WIENWOCHE Open Call projects ask many questions that they then try to answer in concrete projects.
What has become of the revolutionary idea of love? During the October Revolution, afterwards, and what is it nowadays? [The Red Love]
How can we stick and make it together until the end while remaining free and associated with others at the same time? [Wildes Fleisch]
Which forms of living together in the city exist that we merely do not see? [Meisterinnen der Unsichtbarkeit]
Can outer districts’ underground folk dances be brought into the heart of Viennese ‘high’ culture and shrines to consumerism? Can they make one forget the fiction of nation and ethnicity? [Halay City Marathon]
Or: is there an opportunity to experience the joy of ballet movements in the ‘low’ cultural spaces of our outer districts by breaking the hierarchies of body, mind as well as the city geography? [Anti-Fascist Ballet School]
How to cross borders and enable others crossing them although they are created to separate people? [We Overcome Borders]
What are the good news stories created by border crossers? [Refugee TV’s Good News Studio]
What are the stories of ‘Gastarbajters’ and how did Gastarbajters make it together for so long? [Langer Weg der Gastarbajt]
Finally, what could an afro-futurist scenario reveal about Vienna? [When the World Comes to an End... ]

Further, while working on selecting the projects, this year we were happy to say “YES!” to Kunsthalle Wien’s curators’ and educators’ desire to be part of WIENWOCHE 2016: with a workshop, reflecting society’s brutality without reproducing a system based on the divisions. (Brutalität, ihre Sprache, ihre Foren)

As in the past, WIENWOCHE is predominantly from and in Vienna: it is a communal festival that celebrates the power of local action by many that come from everywhere around this world (including Vienna) and stay here, for a short or longer time. But we also have our special guests, superstars and planets!  

Join ‘Forever Together’, where the politics of connection, love and friendship form the basis for acting in solidarity. We will be ‘reading future’, and seeing connectedness that encourages living and loving here, as well as everywhere else.   

For WIENWOCHE: Nataša Mackuljak und Ivana Marjanović

We are committed to ensuring that all interested individuals can participate in the WIENWOCHE programme. For venues that have limited accessibility, we are very happy to help in facilitating participation.
We ask that individual arrangements be made by phone: +43 699 1104 6953

Event information is subject to change; more-over, surprises are planned for WIENWOCHE.

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drawing: fabiola hagen / editing: toledo i dertschei