Humans and Demons
Catalogue and reader for steirischer herbst ’23
The interdisciplinary festival of contemporary art steirischer herbst, based in Graz and Styria, Austria, is pleased to announce the publication of the catalogue of its 56th edition, Humans and Demons, as well as that of the accompanying reader.
In a time of collapsing dichotomies and ethical quandaries, the 2023 edition of steirischer herbst turned to character-based storytelling to explore how people navigate gray zones.
“The intricacy of literature might be more suitable for this than the dysfunctional paradigm of good and evil contemporary art so often uses to turn its topics and issues into positions to be covered correctly, following a party line, preached to the choir. The emergence of a story—as opposed to a topic, theme, or even position—implies a process with a goal, but is at the same time all about the many detours taken along the way, the many possible traps and compromises.” —Ekaterina Degot and David Riff, introduction to the catalogue
The festival’s world was populated by a cast of trickster-like characters: a jazz-loving Nazi, an émigré artist, a dissident’s dissident, and a phantasmal heroine. The richly illustrated catalogue Humans and Demons showcases its four group exhibitions in evocative locations across Graz and documents its performances and cabaret shows.
Short texts by the curators are accompanied by essays by Kira Dralle, Herwig G. Höller, Günther Holler-Schuster, Bernhard Malkmus, and Julya Rabinowich on the festival’s unlikely protagonists.
Published in parallel, the reader Humans and Demons: Dissecting Evil in Evil Times confronts the discourse of evil that has recently replaced the talk of crisis. The crimes and human tragedies in Ukraine or Israel and Palestine have led us to identify monstrous, singular evils, yet we forget that evil lives among us. Even in our polarized world, there are vast moral gray zones, which can be weaponized by authoritarian forces. steirischer herbst ’23 explored how people negotiate such gray zones, how evil can be confronted and ethical judgments still be made. Combining essays and shorter literary texts, the festival’s reader further examines the return of radical evil.
The reader contains contributions by Ilya Budraitskis, Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, Simona Forti, Franziska Füchsl, Orit Halpern, Dana Kavelina, S. Jonathon O’Donnell, Roman Osminkin, and Peter Strasser.
Both publications were designed by the Ljubljana-based collective Grupa Ee (Mina Fina, Damjan Ilić, and Ivian Kan Mujezinović) and are published by Hatje Cantz.
steirischer herbst ’23 was curated by Ekaterina Degot, David Riff, Gábor Thury, and Pieternel Vermoortel.
Ekaterina Degot and David Riff (eds.). Humans and Demons. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2024. ISBN 978-3-7757-5827-7. 23 × 30 cm. 272 pp. Ca. 100 ill. Softcover. 50 EUR
Ekaterina Degot and David Riff (eds.). Humans and Demons: Dissecting Evil in Evil Times. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2024. ISBN 978-3-7757-5828-4. 11.80 × 21.90 cm. 192 pp. 5 ill. Softcover. 26 EUR
Both books are now available wherever books are sold and can also be ordered via our web shop.
