Culture 2008

GRAZ TOURISMUS
from springs, rivers and lakes – most of which is already perfectly drinkable water. Moreover, in many national parks naturally
pure, crystal-clear water bubbles right out of the ground and is bottled just how it is. This way it stays fresh right to the supermarket
shelf. By the way, when hiking through the Austrian mountains, always be sure to have a bottle with you: for your own
use you can fill it with as much cold, clear water as it will hold.
Culture in Graz
Why the city on the Mur River breathes culture.
Innovation has a long tradition in Graz. And this is no contradiction in
terms. Literary luminaries like Peter Handke, Wolfgang Bauer, Alfred Kolleritsch,
Barbara Frischmuth and Elfriede Jelinek – later the recipient of the
Nobel Prize – made the Forum Stadtpark, founded in 1960, famous. The
brilliant playwright Werner Schwab continued this success story into the
1990s. Another legendary institution is the Graz School of Architecture,
which, particularly in the 1980s, was regarded as something of a phenomenon
in the international scene. Some of the leading representatives of
this group, such as Günther Domenig, Klaus Kada and the duo Szyszkowitz-
Kowalski, have left their imprint on Graz’s cityscape and added outstanding
modern accents to the architecturally rich Old Town.
The newest and also most prominent witnesses to this bold marriage of
old and new – Peter Cook and Colin Fournier’s Kunsthaus Graz and Vito
Acconci’s Mur Island – are not by members of the Graz School, but with
their playfully innovative, biomorphic forms, they nevertheless represent a
continuation of what the Graz School stood for.
Graz – The Cultural Capital. Its reputation as a lively, vital city of culture
was the reason that in 2003 Graz was the first Austrian city to receive the
title “European Cultural Capital”. The great success of the “Graz 2003 –
European Cultural Capital” project, however, was due to the unique flair
of the city and its openness to new things – as well as to the neighbours to
the east. And these qualities have been intensified since 2003.
music.
styria
This is why even today Graz calls itself the “Cultural Capital”.
This is not about cultural showing-off, and not about outdoing others with
high-profile events; rather, it’s about a kind of culture that is lived out, celebrated
and enjoyed.
• Every spring the DIAGONALE is kicked off: the festival of Austrian film.
• Also in the spring: the “springfestival” for electronic art and music, the
leading event of its kind in Austria.
• The “styriarte” festival concerns itself with new approaches to early
music. Which is also the guiding philosophy of its artistic director, Nikolaus
Harnoncourt.
• And Graz is ruled by jazz as well. This is evidenced by events like the annual
“Jazz Summer”: all-star jazz with big events at small prices.
• At the street and puppet-theatre festival La Strada, held every summer,
the world’s top street artists descend on Graz.
• The annual “steirischer herbst” festival presents the very latest in international
art trends.
This selection of festivals represents only a few of the annual highlights of
the cultural calendar.
Info & bookings.
Graz Tourismus
Tel. +43 (0)316/80 75-0
info@graztourismus.at
www.graztourismus.at
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