Participating artists: Azra Akšamija (A/BIH), dresscode21 (A), Christian Eisenberger (A), Nezaket Ekici (D/TUR), G.R.A.M. (A), Christoph Grill (A), Andreas Heller (A), Barbara Holub (A), Judith Huemer (A), Hüseyin Isik (A/TUR), ISOP / Meta und Maruša Krese (SLO), Gülsün Karamustafa (TUR), Katja und Martin V. Krusche, Robert Uranitsch (A), Petra Maitz (A), Mariateresa Sartori (I), Michael Schuster (A), Kurt Stadler (A), Edda Strobl (A), Elffriede (A/D), Erwin Talker (A), Wolfgang Temmel (A), Gudrun Wallenböck (A), Manfred Willmann (A)

"Orientations" - the plural of the title already indicates that it is not only about the cardinal point east, defined by the rising sun, or the saying "ex oriente lux" which does not only appropriately express the transfer of knowledge and erudition from east to west for at least more than fifteen centuries. It also stands synonymously for position finding, course and attitude in, between and towards societies and cultures.

"Orientations" shows in an Iconostasis orientalistic - romanticising phantasy by Austrian 19th century drawing - room painters, it projects in Travelling Pictures and Everyday Snaps slides based on personal experience, samples in a Media mosaic some facets of the media that surround us ubiquitously and inescapably. In Divan in Translation "Orientation" deals with language, translation, communication and their failures.

All those aspects complete and accompany the different positions of contemporary artists on that range of themes - hybrid forms of cultural localisation within a referential space which in simple verbal terms is summarised by the paired concept of Orient - Occident, as though they were in some way two homogenous entities.

As mentioned in the subtitle of the festival "Borders and Congruencies", there are different readings of cultural identity. On the one hand we talk about border crossing, but at the same time we are perfectly aware of how the concept of a border is subject to changes in meaning. The issue we discuss is no longer one of separation lines but rather one of interspaces, third spaces (Homi K. Bhabha) or a fluid concept as it has been expressed by Yoko Tawada in an analogy with the waters of the oceans: "How can we know where the place of foreign waters begins, if the border itself is made of water."

Of course "Orientations" relates to the eminent orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer - Purgstall, who inspired Goethe with his translation of the poems of Hafis to the West - Eastern Divan. He lived and did research work in the nearby situated castle of Hainfeld for some years and thus forms centrepiece and starting point of this regional, and yet border crossing journey.

Curator: Alexandra Riewe
Scientific assistence/production: Kirsten Patent