steirischer herbst festival of new art.

For more than forty years now, steirischer herbst has been one of the world’s few festivals of contemporary art that is by nature truly multidisciplinary. Long before the everyone started talking about the necessity of networking the arts, the festival integrated art, music, performance, dance, theatre, literature, architecture, New Media and theory – over the years with various focal points but always self-confidently on the basis of the conditions of the respective genres. The incorporation and networking of both international and regional artists, scenes and contexts is a central issue – steirischer herbst did, after all, emerge from an initiative of local scenes, on the one hand, and has taken productive advantage of its proximity to Slovenia, Croatia and the Central and Eastern European regions (long before the opening of most borders), on the other. Paradoxically (and with some self-irony), steirischer herbst can be referred to as an avant-garde festival with tradition.