US-Premiere Of Austrian Award-Winning Play DIRT
April 2 - April 26 | 2008
Under St. Marks Theater | NY
I start with the premise that the war was important. Even necessary. When one compares the pictures of the great American cities with the pictures of our cities. The pictures of the beautiful people with pale skin. Then the war has meaning. That's the premise I start with.
- DIRT (excerpt)
New York, NY - DIRT is a 70 mintute monologue. Sad is its narrator. A desperately alientated illegall immigrant from Iraq, Sad lives on the fringes of Western society. He confronts xenophonbia, latent racism, and ethnocentrism as he peddles roses to eke out an existence. Issues of identity, anti-foreign sentiment, and self-worth are brought hauntingly to life through the character's disturbing pychological self-portrait. Sad's gripping, hear-wrenching monologue by Austrian novelist and playwright Robert Schneider is as highly relevant today in New York city in 2008 as it was in Vienna where it was published over 15 years ago.
Originally performed in German, DIRT (Dreck) was the most performed solo show in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the mid 90's and the leading European theater magazine Theater Heute awarded Robert Schneider Best New Playwright Of The Year. DIRT is currently having its US-Premiere and Austrian/American actor Christopher Domig was awarded the Outstanding Actor Award for his performance while New York critics rave calling DIRT "Riveting", "Stunning", and "Powerful".
With the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, DIRT will continue its US-premiere in April 2008. Tickets, dates and info can be found at www.dirt-nyc.com
Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities
April 18 - July 24 | 2008
The Drawing Center | NY
New York, NY - This exhibition explores the pivotal role drawing played in the interdisciplinary and multifaceted work of Austro-American designer, artist, theoretician, and architect Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965). Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities will trace Kiesler's interest in the expressive and conceptual possibilities of drawing through key projects and concepts from the 1920s to the 1960s, from his early work as a scenic designer to his revolutionary designs for Peggy Guggenheim's Art of the Century Gallery, as well as his decades-long investigation into the unique structure of his Endless House. As so few of Kiesler's installations, sets, and projects remain or were ever realized, the drawings have become key to understanding his significant contribution to 20th-century thought. Philip Johnson called Kiesler "the best-known non-building architect of our time."
The Drawing Center
35 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013
www.drawingcenter.org
ERWIN REDL: MATRIX II
JANUARY 17 - MAY 4 | 2008
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO IN LA JOLLA | CA
Premiere showing of this room-size LED installation since it entered the Museum's collection in early 2007
San Diego, CA - Austrian-born artist Erwin Redl's room-size installation, MATRIX II, opens January 17, 2008, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's La Jolla location. This room-size work creates a complete sensory experience, offering viewers a space that seems to multiply and recede in all directions, as if the walls were mirrored. Floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall, the room is filled with grids of phosphor green LEDs, creating a pulsating web of light.
MCASD La Jolla
700 Prospect Street La Jolla
CA 92037-4291
www.mcasd.org
Prize Competitions in Austrian Studies for Books Published and Dissertations Defended in the Years 2006 and 2007
Center for Austrian Studies | University of Minnesota | MN
Minneapolis, MN - The Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota announces the current prize competition to identify the best recent monograph and PhD dissertation written by North American citizens or permanent residents in any discipline in the humanities, social sciences, or fine arts regarding contemporary Austria, contemporary Austria's relationship with Central Europe and the European Union, and the history, society, and culture of Austria and the lands of Central and Eastern Europe with a Habsburg heritage.
The deadline for submissions is February 29, 2008.
The Austrian Cultural Forum New York funds the prizes.
Center for Austrian Studies - University of Minnesota
314 267 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
www.cas.umn.edu
Full description of the competitions at: http://www.cas.umn.edu/AWARDS/ACFPRIZE.HTML
TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF CENTER AUSTRIA
UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS | LA
New Orleans, LA - In the fall of 1997 Center Austria opened its offices at the University of New Orleans to administer the programs of the UNO/University of Innsbruck official partnership treaty. The past ten years have produced a dense network of trans-Atlantic contacts, hundreds of student and faculty exchanges, and multiple conferences on various topics, as well as Contemporary Austrian Studies volumes, art and photo exhibitions, and concerts. In February the ten-year anniversary will be celebrated with former Vice-Chancellor Erhard Busek as keynote speaker and visits from Ambassador Nowotny and Rektor Karlheinz Töchterle from the University of Innsbruck.
Center for Austrian Culture and Commerce
Metropolitan College, ED 128
University of New Orleans
New Orleans, LA 70148
www.centeraustria.org
