LINZ TEXAS. A City Relates

An exhibition by Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture in cooperation with the Architekturzentrum Vienna Location: Aedes am Pfefferberg, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin Exhibition period: December 3, 2008 – January 15, 2009 Opening hours: Tue - Fri 11am-6.30pm, Sat-Sun 1pm-5pm Opening: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 6.30pm Press conference and guided tour: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 5pm In 2009, Linz is to be European Capital of Culture. This calls for a new profile. Who can Linz learn from and what can others learn from Linz? What does Linz have in common with Madrid, Wolfsburg or Seattle? Which of its attributes are also to be found in Moscow, Manchester or Davos? An urban road movie pursues the answers to these questions. The capital of the federal state of Upper Austria, Linz, is a prototypical middle-sized town. Making use of its position in the middle, between industry and culture, a commercial metropolis and its natural setting, and between the major tourist hotspots of Vienna and Salzburg, the town has recently shown a remarkable talent for reinventing itself. While it still has image of a dull industrial city rooted in its Nazi heritage, it also hosts internationally established culture events like Forum Design or Ars Electronica. The exhibition LINZ TEXAS A City Relates, a cooperation between Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture and the Architekturzentrum Wien, aims to show affinities with other towns and cities playfully, using strips of images, film excerpts, videos and objects. In the exhibition LINZ TEXAS A City Relates, the city of Linz and the visitors are sent on an imaginary voyage. Not only to Texas, but all around the world. Around twenty towns, cities and regions are shown with highlighted affinities. Size or location are secondary in the drawing of parallels. More important are events and peculiarities etched on a collective cultural memory, or those that have unjustly been forgotten. In Seattle, for instance, a music scene that can conquer the world from a local arena. Or with Salzgitter as an example, question what it is like to live in a city where the urban fabric and commercial structures bear the signature of the Nazi regime. The Indian city of Rourkela demonstrates that there are other ways of coming to terms with postwar modernism than by simply exploding it. And the technology parks surrounding Hyderabad communicate the same dislocated sense of life experienced by the globalized technological elite one encounters in Linz. In the form of a visual dialogue, LINZ TEXAS opens up an atmospheric and challenging mode of deciphering urban reality, an approach that goes far beyond hitherto familiar methods of depicting cities. The categories of imagery involved are as diverse as the urban narratives they convey: from private snapshots to professional architectural photography, to newspaper photographs and tourist souvenirs - all of them mobilized to narrate the city's history. What is it like to live in a city such as Linz? To work there? To visit? Press conference and guided tour: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 5pm Cultural studies expert and curator Angelika Fitz will guide representatives of the press through the exhibition, and will be available to engage in conversation conjointly with Martin Heller, Artistic Director of Linz09, over coffee and Linzer Torte. Please pre-register at [email protected]. Opening speakers: Kristin Feireiss (Aedes), Martin Heller (Artistic Director of Linz09), Angelika Fitz (curator of the exhibition), Dietmar Steiner (Director Az W); greetings from Ambassador Dr. Christian Prosl (Austrian Ambassador in Berlin). Finale with music, accompanied by wine, beer, and bread with Erdäpfelkaas! CREDITS Concept: Angelika Fitz, Martin Heller (Linz09), Dietmar Steiner (AzW) Curator: Angelika Fitz Curatorial assistance: Christina Nägele Exhibition architecture: Heidi Pretterhofer (arquitectos) Exhibition graphics: MVD Austria/Barbara Eisenköck, Michael Rieper, Christine Schmauszer Project Management Aedes: Ulla Giesler CATALOGUE A catalogue of the same title, LINZ TEXAS. A City Relates, is being published to accompany the exhibition. German and English edition © 2008 Springer-Verlag/Vienna. With contributions by Shumon Basar, Angelika Fitz, Klemens Gruber, Martin Heller, Bart Lootsma, Angelika Schnell, Dietmar Steiner, and Roemer van Toorn.