Ok. oskar: 70 Years School of Seeing anniversary festival

OK. oskar: 70 Years School of Seeing
Stadgalerie Zwergelgarten (Mirabellgarten)
July 17–August 26, 2023

OK. oskar: festival
The International Summer Academy of Fine Arts celebrates its 70th anniversary with exhibitions, performances, talks, symposia, workshops, film presentations, concerts, and music sets.

The gallery in Zwergelgartenpavilion will become the center of activities: a walk-in archive and a stage. The architect Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga and the designer Till Gathmann emphasise the social quality of the space and transform the wooden pavilion into a place for unlikely encounters. During the day, the Summer Academy will come alive in photography, film, and text. In the evening, the curtain opens, and the space becomes a plural universe of contemporary art and music. 

OK. oskar: archive
Founded in 1953 by Oskar Kokoschka as the “School of Seeing” at the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts Salzburg is the oldest of its kind in Europe. Around 300 participants from more than 50 nations attend around 20 courses each year at the course venues at the Hohensalzburg Fortress and the Untersberg Quarry and at temporary locations in Salzburg and the surrounding area. Renowned artists, curators, and critics from all over the world offer courses on contemporary art and architecture as well as on curating and writing.

Impressive moments from 70 years are woven into a visual essay under 26 associative concepts. We look back to the past and forward to the various laboratories of art and its waywardness, informality and common sense. The anniversary film by Sina Moser and Joyce Rohrmoser combines archival material, interviews, and recent activities at the Hohensalzburg Fortress to create a unique collage of creative work and its individual and social reflection. At the same time, it shows the horizons of possibility of an art academy and, thus, a pedagogical relationship to art today.

OK. oskar: performances, talks, symposion, workshops, screenings
The discursive programme brings together artists, theorists, and activists who approach “seeing” (perceiving) today from a (queer) feminist, non-binary perspective. The focus of artistic and theoretical reflections are artificial intelligence and machine vision, body extensions and queerdoms, migration and identity, temporality and historicity, and archive and research. They invite us to reposition seeing in its social constitution as well as reading contemporary art. 

Contributions by: A/P Practice (Germany/Italy), Phila Bergmann (Germany/Switzerland) / Thea Reifler (Switzerland), Wolfgang Brauneis (Germany), Maria Bussmann (Germany/Austria), Magdalena Tyzlik-Carver (UK), Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan/France), Vasyl Cherepanyn (Ukraine/Germany), Hans D. Christ (Germany), Sarah Ciston (US), Stephan Dillmuth (Germany), Ariana Dongus (Germany), Iris Dressler (Germany), Helga Embacher (Austria), Sophie Goltz (Germany/Austria), Philipp Gufler (Germany/Netherlands), Laure M. Hiendl (Germany/Austria), Jennifer Higgie (UK/Australia), Sophie Hochhäusl (Austria/US), Astrit Ismaili (Kosovo), KAYA (Germany/US), Nikolay Karabinovych (Ukraine/Belgium), Dana Kavelina (Ukraine/Germany), Maximilian Lehner (Austria), Anika Meier (Germany), Trinh T. Minh-ha (Vietnam/US), Sina Moser (Austria) / Joyce Rohrmoser (Italy/Austria), Ulrike Müller (Austria/US), Robert Obermair (Austria), Matteo Pasquinelli (Italy/Germany), Stanislava Pinchuk (Ukraine/Australia/Bosnia and Herzegovina), Karol Radziszewski (Poland), Shubigi Rao (India/Singapore), Anna Scherbyna (Ukraine/Germany) / Valentina Petrova (Czech republic/Ukraine), Svitlana Shymko (Ukraine) / Galina Yarmanova (Ukraine/Hungary), Annie Sprinkle / Beth Stephens (US), Mette Sterre (Netherlands), Anselm Wagner (Austria), et al. 

For a full calendar of events, please see here.

All events in English language, available as livestream: YouTube, @SummerAcadOfFineArts, streams.

OK. oskar: concerts, music-sets
The Criss-Cross music programme by artist Zosia Holubowska consists of live acts and music sets that combine experimental and electronic club music. Invited musicians and DJs celebrate trans-local communities and connections. Each event follows a no-headlining rule, so different scenes and initiatives from Eastern and Central Europe meet equally over the summer. Feminine with queer with non-binary with transsexual sounds and moves connect in Salzburg. 

Contributions by: Antonia XM (Austria), Cat Gadget (Austria), DJ Steve (Austria), DJ Terror (Austria), Emma Helena (Austria), evil medved (Czech republic), Freeride Millenium (Germany/Austria), Hyeji Nam (South Korea /Austria), Ironica Los Culos (Brazil/Austria), isocialbutterfly (Germany/Austria), Mala Herba (Poland/Austria), MONSTER (Poland), Odete (Portugal), Ornella Rodriguez (Austria), ROVA (Austria), sch4tzi (Austria), Tony Renaissance (Austria), Vani Vachi (Ukraine/Germany), ZEY (Czech republic/Austria), et al.  

For a full calendar of events, please see here.

OK. oskar: exhibitions 
April–September 2023. Parallel, six exhibitions in the Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus are shown with international teaching artists who approach seeing (sensing) today from a feminist, queer, non-binary, intersectional perspective. The focus is on artistic practices of expanded painting and digital creation that explore worlds of equity and public spirit. 

Forthcoming exhibitions: Ulrike Mülller (July 15–August 5), Shu Lea Cheang (August 12–September 2), Students of Angewandte Vienna (September 9–30)

For all exhibitions, please see here. Admission free to all exhibitions and events.

*Images above: Oskar Kokoschka opens the School of Vision, 1953. © Charlotte Till­Borchhardt; Metal Sculpture Class, E.R. Nele, Archive 1993; Steinbildauer-Symposion, Archive 1988; Oskar Kokoschka, Archive 1959; Michael Mauracher, Video Class, Valie Export, Archive 1991; View from the windows of the fortress, Archive 1994; Geoffrey Hendricks, Performance, Alte Saline Hallein, Archive 2000; Elisabeth Wörndl, Class Painting and Drawing, Gunter Damisch, Archive 1998; Andreas Horvath, Class Sculpture/Colour, György Jovánovics, Festung Hohensalzburg, Archive 1999; Michael Mauracher, Sculpture class, Imre Varga, Archive 1989; Class Painting, Rudolf Szyszkowitz, Archive 1967; Herbert Stejskal, Archive 1984; Thomas P. Kausel, Painting Class, Hermann Nitsch, Katakomben, Archive 1993; Andrew Phelps, Final Exhibition Class Design, Marcello Morandini, Archive 1994. Design: Gaia Tovaglia.