origin

Theater and investigation; archeology; unearthing what’s buried—layer by layer by layer. Upper Austria’s Hausruck region is the site of a fascinatingly dense concentration of events, stories and history. Since 2005 Theater Hausruck has been uncovering these strata, digging and stirring things up, and its successes has been rewarded with sold-out houses and rave reviews. It has transported audiences to the absurdest of locations, left them to grope in the dark and figure out for themselves if they’ve crossed the border between fiction and reality, strapped them into emotional roller coasters, and left them substantially impressed indeed. The Ars Electronica visits the Hausruck and kicks off this year’s festival in an once in a lifetime experience. The first part of the Hausruck-story can be found here.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EmpIE0BZv8
€AT – Kapitalismuskrieg in der Konkurshalle, Theater Hausruck, 2010

There are the disconsolate charged with dispensing hope to left-behind losers, the Ferraris you can win by touching them long enough, the giants and gnomes who accompany you on your way into an uncertain future—the play with symbolism characterizes their theatrical productions.
And by no means of least importance is the fact that Theater Hausruck is a genuine product of the region. Instead of buying the rights to put on somebody else’s play, they prefer narratives that emerge from the very place the drama is being produced, portrayed by amateur actors. Thus, local artists depict the fascinating world that opens up when one enters the horseshoe-shaped Hausruck landscape, and thereby contribute to conveying the region out of the shadows and into Austria’s cultural limelight where it belongs. And Ars Electronica will help to further expand this influence onto science and research, since the theater’s long-term mission is to bring together art and science at this place of origins and to give investigators the opportunity for profound encounters with the matters and issues that rear their heads here.

We recently spoke with District Administrator Peter Salinger about the cultural and economic significance of the collaboration between Ars Electronica and Theater Hausruck.

AE: Theater Hausruck has made quite a name for itself over the last few years and audience response has been tremendous. Ars Electronica is one of the world’s largest art & technology festivals. What sort of impact do you expect this alliance will have in the Hausruck region?

Check out the blog of Theater Hausruck for the latest news of rehearsals, research and what’s happening around the sight of the Ars Electronica kick-off on September 1st.