March 29 until July 6
«This Really Happened Here»
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Hubert Lobnig, Matthias Wieser «Klagenfurt Is Burning»
For the exhibition «This Really Happened Here» three events have been researched and prepared as examples of the alternative and counter-culture history of Carinthia.
At the focus of the exhibition is the now historical incident of the occupation of Reitschulgasse 4 and the associated demand for the establishment of a cultural and communications center for everyone, «KommZ» for short, in Klagenfurt/Celovec. On 20 June 1979, in parallel with the Bachmann competition taking place as part of the «Encounter Week» – in which a protest was held against the form taken by the reading competition – literary figures and youth occupied the building adjoining the event location. Starting with the day of the occupation and mainly during summer and fall 1979, a large number of concerts, readings and discussions took place at the building and especially in the front garden. Many artists and people in the public eye demonstrated solidarity with the demands of the occupiers. Negotiations with the city failed, but were at least conducted energetically. The occupied building was cleared out on March 21, 1980, and later transformed into the so-called «Europahaus,» a city-run location with artists’ apartments, offices and exhibition spaces.
In a second section, the exhibition gathered together material on the events surrounding the so-called «BombaClab,» a building occupation project on Kreuzbergl in Klagenfurt/Celovec that had a related agenda, but deployed divergent aesthetic means. In early summer, young people occupied two military barracks on a former shooting range. One of the goals of BombaClab was to look into the historical background of the place. Here as well, the youth – who, in keeping with the times, were more part of the DJ and sprayer culture – demanded an autonomous center in Klagenfurt/ Celovec where they could hold events and parties or just hang out, «because there were hardly any places for culture in Klagenfurt/Celovec that were outside the realm of commerce, nationalism and control.» No one was living in the buildings at the time, and they were regularly used by various groups for their events. Nevertheless, this «free space, which actively integrates the Slovenian language and culture […], where no one is excluded because of his/her skin color, gender or sexual orientation,» was cleared out in fall 2006, sealed by the police and fenced off. The buildings are still empty to this day: «Never trust in Klagenfurt.»
The third area of the exhibition looks at the founding of the Longo maï group at the Hof Stopar farm in the Eisenkappel/ Železna Kapla and its fortunes and political engagement since 1977. The Austrian Longo Maï Cooperative (the international group was established in 1973), subtitled the Association for the Promotion of Resettlement of Mountain Regions, carried out a counter-movement to the building occupiers mentioned above, moving from city to country in order to make itself autonomous from social and economic constraints by means of agriculture and self-sufficiency. One reason for choosing to settle in a very remote area has to do with the historical events in that region: chielfy the resistance of the Slovenes of Carinthia during the Nazi era. In addition to establishing autonomous agriculture and rebuilding the farm, the residents of Stopar were also frequently active on the sociopolitical front, whether advocating for bilingual schools in Carinthia, participating in the European Citizens’ Forum and in the alternative information network AIM during the Balkan wars, or distributing free, non-commercial local radios in Austria.
The springboard for the joint seminar was an experimental approach. The students were able to creatively put their knowledge of social research and its methodology to the test in the field, along with their practical media skills. We offered them theoretical, methodological, conceptual and artistic support, cultivating a collegial and thoroughly non-hierarchic tone. The students did research in both private and public archives and on the internet, uncovering information, conducting interviews, and gathering together documents, photos and objects. «Follow the people, the thing, the story!» (George Marcus) was the watchword here – doing detective work, archeology or simply research was the task at hand: tracking down places of otherness and uncovering stories that are hardly or rarely heard, even though they seem so obvious. The findings and discoveries are not (re)presented in the form of a study paper, however, but rather in this exhibition. An intervention in public space that itself has such interventions as its subject. However, the exhibition is an unfinished archive. Stakeholders, activists and exhibition visitors are called upon to continue to add to it and develop it further.
The openness of the contexts and research is mirrored in the openness of the displays conceived for the exhibition: Kunstraum Lakeside is reflected in the public space; the banner «Thoroughly interest-free zone» waves right in the middle of Lakeside Park; the Super 8 film by Arnulf Ploder, shot during the «hot» summer of 1979 on Reitschulgasse breaks down into a memory machine with fragmented images; the faded outer facade of the lower floor of Reitschulgasse 4 becomes a mind map of times and contexts. «Klagenfurt is burning.»
Hubert Lobnig is a visual artist, born 1962 in Völkermarkt, Austria. He received his MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1986. Specializing in video, drawing, painting, photography, and installation, he has had numerous exhibitions in museums, galleries and public spaces. Apart from his own communication based projects he has been a curator; he was the founder of Tigerpark in 1997, a non-for-profit space and platform for artistic and curatorial projects. Hubert Lobnig’s work is often site-specific, process oriented, and participatory. His main concerns are topics of social and political relevance, e.g. agriculture, the disappearance of European borders, migration, architecture, the organization of personal and public spaces, concepts of living and frameworks of economy. He works as an associate professor at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz and lives in Vienna and Mödring. Many of his public art projects have been conceived and directed in conjunction with Iris Andraschek.
Matthias Wieser studied sociology and cultural studies in Aachen and London. After working at the department of sociology of RWTH Aachen University he joined the department of media & communications of AAU Klagenfurt in 2007. Besides contemporary social, cultural and media theory, his research is focused on cultural (media) studies and science & technology studies.
exhibition concept
Hubert Lobnig
Students
Dennis De La Gala
Charlotte Dietrich
Fabian Forer
Petra Hartinger
Ellen Hoppenbrouwers
Markus Ortner
Dania Pfeifenberger
Monika Skazedonig
Marcus Ursej