For six weeks, a series of art projects in public space are representing life in a Viennese quarter, the part of town around Volkertplatz square and near Alliiertenstraße in Vienna‘s second district. The so called Volkertviertel is right next to Äußere Taborstraße and only a few minutes‘ walk from the Praterstern junction.
In its immediate vicinity, there are public works on the underground system, and a new railway station, Wien Nord, is being built at Praterstern. Volkertviertel itself, quasi an enclave, however, is said to be quiet and is partly lacking in infrastructure; both Nordbahnstraße and the wall of Augarten park fulfil an exceptional dividing function. As an almost typical "Grätzel", i. e. a subsystem in the super system of a city, the Volkertviertel (over 10. 000 inhabitants on 30 hectares)has developed particular communication qualities which are being reinforced by having a central market place |
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and an outstanding concentration of social facilities and schools. This densely built up urban zone in Vienna has been characterised by the settlement of immigrants since not later than the nineteenth century. Geschichte(n)vor Ort establishes contacts and relationships with life on the spot. Personal stories in the sense of representative biographies are being taken up and are occasionally being finished as fiction or utopia; at the same time, the political history of the district is taken into consideration. The means and visual forms of performance the artists adopt are extremely diverse and occasionally condense in comprehensive narrative moments; familiar sign-codes are alienated or deformed subversively. Starting with the observation of gentle innovation measures in this rather stagnating Viennese district seeing a busy building activity in the vicinity, the invited artists are also analysing the possibilities of critical realization of art in public space. Curators: Michal Kolecek (CZ), Margarethe Makovec (AT), Roland Schöny (AT)
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