As part of the herbst academy 2015, steirischer herbst is once again running four workshops – this year by and with Gülsen Bal and Walter Seidl, who are curating the exhibition To What End? at Camera Austria, with dramaturg and documentary film-maker Regine Dura and director Hans-Werner Kroesinger, Spanish artist Lara Almarcegui, and Daniel Wetzel from the theatre collective Rimini Protokoll, which will examine Hitler’s propaganda publication “Mein Kampf” on stage at this year’s festival.
Artists, theorists and students are invited to investigate questions of property and capital, inheritance and inherited burden, transfer of knowledge and our handling of cultural heritage and not at least to reflect on the artworks on show at the steirischer herbst festival. The four workshops will revolve around this year’s herbst conference Future Perfect, which will take place on Sat 10/10 & Sun 11/10.

Workshop 1
Gülsen Bal (GB/TR/AT) / Walter Seidl (AT)
To What End?
The exhibition To What End? investigates the idea of “inheritance” as a device for reclaiming historical memories so as to enable criticism of dominant narratives and cultural ideas. How can we understand the concept of “inheritance” when it is a matter of making a wide range of voices heard, all reflecting different cultural contexts? What potential lies in post national forms of belonging that run counter to widely accepted strategies of globalisation? And how are current political and social changes manifested in the creative world, how can we integrate them into the spheres of art? In artist talks, discussions and a film programme, the aim is to widen the range of topics connected with social, political and economic codes by means of experimental research.

Workshop 2
Regine Dura / Hans-Werner Kroesinger (DE)
United States of Europe – Europe as a Location or Idea?
Modern-day Europe, that we prefer to see as having been born of the spirit of the French Revolution, came into being in 1950 as a coal and steel union: if you work together, you don’t fight against each other. So the birth of the European Union was induced by economic concerns and a desire for security. Internal borders were abolished for the movement of goods, external borders closed. Is Europe a community of values, and, if so, which values are involved? To whom do they apply? And what kind of role does common cultural heritage play, what role the EU Frontex agency? Director Hans-Werner Kroesinger and dramaturg / documentary film maker Regine Dura examine Europe with the aid of documents. In this workshop, a document is everything that the participants regard as relevant in this context, be it political, philosophical or personal. Material for a later presentation will be developed from the pool of resources.

Workshop 3
Lara Almarcegui (NL/ES)
Mineral Rights
In her work, Lara Almarcegui often explores wastelands or unheeded places. In order to deepen her investigation of land – as a symbol of the past and a source of “building” – 
she now turns her attention to what lies below: “Mineral Rights: Acquisition of the mineral rights of an iron deposit” is an ongoing project in several countries in which Almarcegui tries to purchase land, not to extract minerals but to highlight how the territory is shaped at a geological level, and how it is broken down for exploitation. Looking back on the long history of mining and land ownership, the workshop investigates how rulers of different countries oppose the idea that individual citizens acquire rights to mineral resources. The workshop will also analyse the situation around Graz in depth. Various forms of landscape representation are investigated alongside this process. Lara Almarcegui is also participant of the herbst exhibition Hall of Half-Life.

Workshop 4
Daniel Wetzel / Rimini Protokoll (DE)
Places of Overwriting
In the performances of the Rimini Protokoll theatre collective, the act of remembering, generally a way of preventing something from being forgotten, is made visible as an act of overwriting and, above all, inscribing – personal, political and social pasts into the present. For Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Band 1 & 2, co-produced by steirischer herbst, it is once again the expertise and experiences of the protagonists with the propaganda publication that constitute the central material, ninety years after publication of the book. The incomplete search for traces turns the stage into a field of play between fact and fiction. In other projects, the company uses specific sites – almost parasitically – as a stage on which to view the present. In “Hausbesuch Europa” ( 2015 ), for example, it is the audience’s living rooms. The workshop examines selected works of Rimini Protokoll with the aid of practical experimental set-ups.

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