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2006 Ars Electronica Festival: The Bottom Line
“SIMPLICITY – the art of complexity” featured a jam-packed lineup of events, conferences, symposia, exhibitions and performances showcasing the state of the art of global media culture. The international and regional interest in the Festival has been overwhelming.
Linz (September 5). With “SIMPLICITY – the art of complexity” as their overarching theme, artists, theoreticians, scientists and scholars from around the world have spent a week in Linz together with enthusiastic attendees experiencing and discussing phenomena of media culture, their developments to date and their prospects for the future.
“We’re certainly aware that there’s been growing demand on the part of broader-based audiences to attend Festival events over the last several years; nevertheless, there hasn’t been a year in which intense interest on the part of the general public has been so clearly evident as it was in 2006,” stated Ars Electronica Artistic Director Gerfried Stocker. “This confirms our concept of offering the excellent content that Ars Electronica has come to stand for not only at classic cultural venues like concert halls and museums but also on Linz’s Main Square and at interesting new locations like the St. Florian Monastery,” Stocker added.
The open house at the Ars Electronica Center set a new attendance record. On opening day, 1,703 guests packed the Museum of the Future for the premiere of the new exhibits. There was also lively interest on the part of locals and international guests alike in the “Moonride” that integrated visitors from far and wide into the Festival’s activities. The other open-access events such as “Harbor Resonance,” the opening night extravaganza at Linz Harbor, were big draws too. Since its launch in 2004,
the Animation Festival, a “festival within the festival” devoted to computer animation, has made a convincing bid for fixture status in the Ars Electronica lineup.
This year's biggest first was the shift of the festival’s setting for an entire day to a location outside of Linz. “Going to the Country – A Day-trip to the Hinterland in Search of Simplicity” took Ars Electronica to the St. Florian Monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and the tremendous interest in this production absolutely overwhelmed festival organizers. Lectures, concerts and sound installations set amidst the monastery’s splendor attracted over 2,000 attendees.
Demand for tickets to the evening events was high as usual. The Ars Electronica Gala’s terrific new format that keeps the spotlight focused on the artists and their achievements garnered extremely positive feedback. The big evening concert, “Some Sounds and Some Fury,” was sold out and got rave reviews.
Attendance at symposia and conferences was outstanding as well. The speeches by John Maeda, featured artist and symposium curator, filled the venue way beyond capacity. The exhibitions in the Brucknerhaus, the O.K. Center for Contemporary Art, the Ars Electronica Center, Linz’s University of Art and Industrial Design, the Lentos Museum of Art as well as numerous installations in public spaces proved to be big attractions.
The numbers alone—35,000 visitors, 535 artists and scientists from 20 countries, 504 journalists from 32 countries and a wide array of projects developed by partner universities or produced jointly with guest curators—attest to Ars Electronica’s high international profile and regional attractiveness.
Facts and Figures
Visitors
Ars Electronica 2006 35.000 Visitor-contacts
Linzer Klangwolke 95.000 Visitors
Artists & Scientists
535 Artists and Scientists from 20 countries.
Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA
Accreditations
504 accredited journalists from 32 countries
Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, USA
With queries:
Tel ++43.732.7272-32
E-mail: robert.bauernhansl@aec.at
http://www.aec.at/press
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