Afterwards: Documentary “Room free – Overnight stay in special architecture: Provence” – from 10.30 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON
Vienna (OTS) – The “kulturMontag” presented by Clarissa Stadler on July 22, 2024 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON takes a first look at the new production of “Everyman” with Philipp Hochmair in the title role at this year’s Salzburg Festival, meets Erwin Wurm on the occasion on his 70th birthday at his home and place of work, Limberg Castle in Lower Austria, and provides a current picture of the mood in the USA before the presidential elections taking place in November this year. Afterwards, the documentary “Room free – Overnight stay in special architecture” visits “Provence” (11.15 p.m.): The series is dedicated to the history and development of architecture in the tourism environment and shows selected projects that combine tradition and modernity and architecture and art in one Establish dialogue.
A box office hit is reloaded – The new “Everyman”
With his one-man show “Everyman Reloaded” in 2013, Philipp Hochmair took on a total of 20 roles and, together with his band “Die Elektrohand Gottes”, transformed the more than 100-year-old mystery play into a rocky, apocalyptic spoken concert spectacle. Five years later he took over the leading role from the ill Tobias Moretti on Cathedral Square; for the first time in the history of the Salzburg Festival after 1945, an “Everyman” had to step in. Hochmair achieved a brilliant success with both audiences and critics. This is a thing of the past, because this year the 50-year-old Viennese is playing the new “Everyman”. For the management of the Salzburg Festival, it was time for the medieval “Morality Play,” which Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote, to be resampled and rethought. Canadian director Robert Carsen was chosen for this task. He sees the character as money-obsessed, greedy and cold-hearted and with his interpretation he wants to provide a razor-sharp analysis of materialistic society and the associated decline in spiritual values. For him, the “everyman” is a nouveau riche who suddenly fails. The “unsurpassed greed” in Hofmannsthal’s “Rich Man’s Dying Game” leads to death. For Robert Carsen, confronting the inevitable should lead to reflection on how we should live our lives. In addition to a completely new cast, especially the Swiss actress Deleila Piasko as “Buhlschaft”, Andrea Jonasson as “Everyman’s Mother” and Christoph Luser as “Devil and Good Fellow”, the cathedral also plays a special role in Carsen’s production. In contrast to previous productions, no buildings will hide the cathedral facade. The building itself becomes a stage, a piazza at the same level that can accommodate up to 90 people is the sophisticated place for “everyone’s” table company. The cathedral is a church and “everyone’s” house at the same time. ORF 2 will broadcast the eagerly awaited new production on Saturday, July 27th at 8:15 p.m. Before that, “kulturMontag” offers initial insights and comprehensive interviews.
A cucumber in XXL format – Erwin Wurm for his 70th birthday
In the middle of the idyllic landscape of the Weinviertel, an oversized “Fat Car” is parked on the meadow, a headless hooded man suddenly appears by a pond and a strangely squeezed, narrow house is lined up next to a medieval castle – welcome to the strange, wonderful world of Erwin Wurm ! Limberg Castle in the Lower Austrian municipality of Maissau is not only the center of the art star’s life, but also a place of work, production and storage. The Styrian native finds plenty of space for his often gigantic works on the five-hectare property. His kissing sausages or hot water bottles on two legs appear surreal, his cucumbers in XXL format are humorous, and his monstrously inflated people are bizarre. The cheerful, nonchalant character characterizes his sculptures. Erwin Wurm has succeeded in giving art a certain lightness, and yet it still has a serious core due to its criticism of consumerism. Aloof art that is heavily laden with pathos is not his. His objects have long since become an artistic brand; Erwin Wurm dances skillfully on the art stage around the globe. This year alone, the Lower Austrian by choice is exhibiting between London and Shanghai, between Berlin and Venice, before he is honored in this country with a comprehensive retrospective at the Albertina Modern on the occasion of his 70th birthday. He achieved his breakthrough at the end of the 1990s with his “One Minutes Sculptures,” in which people use everyday objects to transform themselves into art objects. This idea arose from a life crisis when his first wife divorced and his parents died in quick succession. Erwin Wurm has now been awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize, has represented his country at the renowned Venice Biennale together with Brigitte Kowanz, and a recently published biography by Rainer Metzger honors his rise in the global art world. Before Erwin Wurm celebrates his 70th birthday on the Greek island of Hydra, a hotspot for the art jet set, he gives “kulturMontag” insights into his art universe at Limberg Castle.
The American Promise – Kerstin Kohlenberg’s mood in the US election year
Since his appearance in the TV duel against Donald Trump at the end of June, a heated debate has broken out about whether 81-year-old Joe Biden is fit enough for another term in office. Biden’s opponent Donald Trump ran for the first time in 2016 with the slogan “Make America great again” because he wanted to be the most famous man in the world. On November 5, 2024, Americans will elect their new president. According to a recent survey, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign event in the US state of Pennsylvania did not lead to a change in the mood of voters. However, 80 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “the country is spiraling out of control.” 84 percent said they were worried extremists would commit violent acts after the election. What is the mood in the country and who will win the match? What are the candidates’ future plans? In her book “The American Promise,” award-winning German journalist Kerstin Kohlenberg sees democracy in the USA on the brink of collapse. From 2014 to 2021 she worked as a correspondent for the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. When she left America again in 2021, it had become a country in which a large part of the people no longer believed in the central institution of popular sovereignty, in free and fair elections. She wants to see how the anger and loss of trust came about not in the effects of globalization, economic decisions, migration flows, unemployment or the quality of educational qualifications, but in the emotional changes of people: in the pride in that own country and in the insults it inflicts on you, in the hope of a happy life and the doubts as to whether you will ever achieve it – in those feelings and values that shape a person’s relationship with their country. Via a connection to Berlin, Clarissa Stadler explores the reasons for the erosion of the middle class in a conversation with Kerstin Kohlenberg.
Documentation: “Room free – stay overnight in special architecture:
Provence” (11.15 p.m.)
How important is the type of accommodation on vacation when the scenery is perfect? The ORF culture series “Zimmer frei” is dedicated to the history and development of architecture in the tourism environment and shows selected projects that combine tradition and modernity and place architecture and art in a dialogue. Holiday homes that take up, develop and shape the architectural styles of the regions, underline the respective landscape and dare to build a bridge between historical building material and contemporary design. This time, in what is now the sixth edition of the “Zimmer frei” series, Martin Traxl visits very different buildings and projects in the southeast of France, in Provence. In addition to architects, developers and hoteliers, experts will also speak about the meaning and history of architecture in Provence, the changes in structural design, as well as the social aspects of art and architecture. The objects that can be found around Marseille, Arles, Cassis and Saint Tropez – between urbanity, Mediterranean flair and rural idyll – are just as varied and diverse as the topography and landscape of Provence: from the former village school, which is now a guesthouse functions, the abandoned Carmelite convent, which today focuses on wellness and enjoyment instead of contemplation, the former hospital in the center of Marseille, which has been transformed into a 5-star refuge, to the Art Deco hotel that has been awakened from its Sleeping Beauty slumber, where the crème de la crème vacationed at the beginning of the 20th century. What all of these objects have in common is a sensitivity for the revitalization of historical buildings, skill and skill in craftsmanship and an understanding that the old and the new can enter into a symbiosis. Temporary living in Le Corbusier’s architectural monument is just as possible in Provence as rest and relaxation in the centuries-old château – nestled between vineyards and art installations by Frank Gehry and Bob Dylan – or a weekend trip that is like an architectural journey back in time to the Sixties. But newly created objects also show how the boundaries between architecture and nature are blurring, how simple design is harmonized with opulent flora.