urban matters

Fear of Life – The City as a Habitat to All
Social Design Symposium #3
Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna

Oct.7, 2016, 9:30 am – 8 pm

The actual (and not entirely surprising) political conditions of life in Austria and its neighboring countries is a burning as well as starting point to the planning of this international symposium. Fear respectively the creation of anxieties has become a much too powerful instrument of political persuasion. Solidaric processes are undermined if not destroyed, future is discounted: if circumstances do obviously not improve at least they should not change anymore.
How do notions of innovation come into play in an atmosphere of re-bordering Europe?
How could artists, how should intellectuals act now? And from where? Should they change the contexts of their work? Should they start to focus already on much younger generations? Or should they establish safe spaces inside institutions?
Big questions and maybe the answers could be found in distinct if not even pungent words, in highly precise and detailed actions, in repeated societal acupunctures in both virtual and analogue spaces?

with: Ruth Wodak, Barbara Holub, Oto Hudec, Ton Matton, Katerina Seda, Angelika Fitz, Antonio Cosme, Andrew Herscher, Pawel Althamer
curated by: Brigitte Felderer

+ Presentation of the Social Design Reader #1:
Barbara Holub (ed.): Das Bienvenue: Ein Recht auf Raum für alle