Where are we now?

de Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Andreas R. Peternell, Wilma Renfordt

In 2017 Steirische Herbst, one of the oldest multidisciplinary contemporary art festivals in Europe, will take place for the 50th time. Since its founding in 1968, the festival for performance art, theatre, visual arts, music, architecture, dance, literature, film and theory has been a platform for the lively debate concerning the complex social, political and economic conditions of the present.0With this goal still very much at the fore, the anniversary year will be one not of reflecting on the past, but one that focuses on critical analysis and the artistic translation of current conditions. ?Where Are We Now?? is the question 50 artists and theoreticians ? whose works have helped define the festival for the past decade ? reflect upon in this publication. Frustrated and inspired by new strains of nationalism, growing social inequality, advancing digitalisation, migratory movements and new areas of knowledge, the participants position themselves in the here and now with entirely different perspectives, resulting in the juxtaposition of biographical localisation, political analyses and the demands on their own practice in art and criticism. In their totality, the images series, essays, photos, drawings, collages and narrations give rise to a stimulating cartography of the present.00Exhibition: steirischer herbst festival, Graz, Austria (22.09.-15.10.2017).