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Arts & Culture

As a participant dive into new experiences and let unusual encounters and unusal situations surprise you.

Where artists create spaces for inspiration and critical reflection.

Their visions and poetic utopias invite you to look at areas of social tension from new perspectives. Installations, performances as well as literary, visual, and musical works make this perceptible, visible, and audible. International cultural institutions, artists, and local scholarship holders conceive and realise experimental and interdisciplinary works that are specifically tailored to the European Forum Alpbach.

Clemens Wenger: Start By Listening

Soundcollage with Alpbach inhabitants and scholarship holders

What does Alpbach sound like, and what new worlds of sound will emerge during the EFA 22? The original sounds of the village and its people will meet the surprising sound messages of the international scholarship holders from all over the world. The musician Clemens Wenger (5/8erl in Ehrʼn, JazzWerkstatt Wien) will collect these sound recordings and make the place and the valley resound in various soundscapes.

On the forecourt of the Congress Centrum Alpbach (CCA) and on the village square, two listening stations will offer an opportunity to sharpen the sense of hearing. In the sight of Alpbachʼs Alpine backdrop and amid the densely paced hustle and bustle during the EFA, the pieces invite to reconsider the moment: „Listening versus Hearing“. Hearing means only the physical possibility of perceiving sound, whereas listening is about abstract recognition and classification of sound sources and sensual experience through conscious emotional evaluation. For the listening stations in Alpbach, our collective sound recordings (nature atmospheres, voice recordings of peopleʼs dialects, music bands and choirs in the countryside, music performances in public spaces in cities, noisy motorways and waterfalls, quiet forests and private spaces, etc.) are collaged into new compositions.

Let us enjoy and practice listening as an important democratic tool in society!

The art installation will be visible throughout the entire European Forum Alpbach 2022.

Theresa Hattinger: The Common Separation

Artistic Intervention in Public Space

With her installation The Common Separation, Theresa Hattinger invites you to keep on questioning your own decisions and associations. As a multidisciplinary designer and artist, she is convinced that opinions are rather more a question of socialisation than the result of a conscious decision. A guidance system is used to divide important access routes at the Congress Centrum Alpbach and in the village into two separate ones, using what seem to be two opposites. Despite all its visibility, the intervention is subtle and cheerfully invokes a clear design language that feigns authority and inescapability. Even so, a decision must be made, either in favour of one side or the other. The seven-part public-space installation is complemented by two mirrored textile sculptures in the village square and in front of the Congress Centrum Alpbach. These enter into a dialogue with the sound collage “Start By Listening” and capture the faces of contemplators while they are listening. The (Commonly Not) Separated are somewhat dependent on each other, nestled into their surroundings and allowed be touched.

The art installation will be visible throughout the entire European Forum Alpbach 2022.

The World in the Village | Celebration and Choir Concert | 28 August 2022, 18:00

Just as a village brings the concept of community to life on a local level, Europe does so multinational. Let’s intertwine both: EFA participants and locals, coming together to celebrate Europe through community, music, entertainment and food.

Three local choirs – Alpbach Church Choir, Da Kor and Mosaik Choir – will perform a piece especially composed for the EFA22. Watch out for this and other choir performances in the village throughout the festival!

INFO: Everyone’s welcome! A detailed timetable for the event will be published shortly.

Concert | 31 August 2022, 20:30

Sounds interesting: Join us this evening for a special occasion in Alpbach’s village centre and experience the two musicians, composers, lyricists and interpreters extraordinaire Rina Kaçinari (Cello, Vocals) and Maria Craffonara (Violin, Vocals) –both internationally successful in several ensembles – draw on the remarkable wealth of their musical worlds for their 1st Alpbach Concert, combining passion and humour.