melancholy in september – survival of the weakest

melancholy in september – survival of the weakest

lectures | readings | performances | music | exhibition

27 until 29 september 2018

"in a world without melancholy, nightingales would start burping"

e. m. cioran

the term melancholy is as far reaching as it is fragile. during the course of cultural history, disciplines such as philiosophy, theology, medicine, psychology, psychiatry and all of the arts have tried a definition. in doing so, one could hardly distinguish between explanation and romanticization of the melancholy soul. however, it seems to be a given that melancholy is able to release contrary forces: inspiration and despair, resistance and capitulation, undisturbed phlegm and deepest depression. dancing on top of all that will be writers and performers, musicians and theorists of the "black gall". maybe e.m. cioran is right in saying: "in a world without melancholy, nightingales would start burping".
fritz ostermayer
(artistic director of the vienna poetry school and curator of melancholy in september)

opening of the exhibition "melancholy" by raphaela edelbauer & simon goritschnig & their class on thursday, 27 sept. at 7 p.m.

venue: vienna poetry school/sfd, mariahilfer straße 88a/stiege III/7, 1070 vienna

two festival evenings on friday, 28 and saturday 29 september, always 8 p.m.

venue: schauspielhaus wien, porzellangasse 19, 1090 vienna

fri., 28 september 2018

johannes ullmaier (mainz) – lecture (idleness & melancholy, capitalism & depression)

olinka vištica & dražen grubišić (zagreb) – the museum of broken relationships (in english)
since 2006, the "museum of broken relationship" has existed in zagreb, founded by the newly separated artists' couple vištica/grubišić. there, one can marvel at extremely sad, but also at highly comic artefacts from broken marriages, relationships and affairs. the two curators present their personal highlights of the collection and the objects' history.

deborah levy (paris) – reading (in english)
no one gets killed by the "sweet" melancholy of late autumn days, on the contrary: it can be a means for survival and sharpen our senses for the stale promises of soul optimisers. levy's novels and short stories give us the gift of insight that we are never more mobile than in emptiness, never more imaginative than when we let go. "black vodka" – according to a book title of the british writer – can definitely not do any harm in this context.

clara frühstück/tobias leibetseder/fritz ostermayer/christine sbaschnigg/jan maria lukas (vienna) (and an extraordinary surprise guest!) – melo, my love – music/text/video-performance

 

sa, 29. september 2018

marion poschmann (berlin) – reading

thomas melle (frankfurt a. m./berlin) – reading with conversation (sweet weltschmerz vs bitter despair)

raphaela edelbauer & simon goritschnig (vienna) & poets of the sfd-class “the achievement of the theory of everything”: manfred bruckner, gabriele gäbelein, katharina goetze, markus grundtner, irene hager, theodor maier, julia alina kessel, peter alexander kopciak, regine koth afzelius, nadine obermüller – text/image-performance

stella sommer (die heiterkeit) (hamburg) – word/music-performance

 

curated by fritz ostermayer, artistic director of sfd

graphic design: jörg piringer

tickets 28 and 29 sept. schauspielhaus:
t: +43 1 3170101 18
e: karten@schauspielhaus.at
day ticket: standard 12,- / under 30 10,-
combined ticket (only when both tickets are purchased at the same time): standard 20,- / under 30 15,-

vienna poetry school in association with schauspielhaus wien

>> review: festival 2017