We propose to locate the festival center in Linzer Straße and to develop and play the entire street in the sense of a TEMPORARY ARTISTIC ZONE. For this purpose, the vacancies and open spaces of the street are to be culturally played and the existing infrastructures of the cultural actors already resident in the street are to be used, strengthened and consolidated. The climax of the performance, including an architectural intervention, is to take place from the opening of the tangent in 2024 and the following three peaks. Here, the entire street will become a festival center, with all the functions of the center distributed decentrally in different spaces along the street, but nevertheless visually and architecturally condensed by an expansive intervention. Co-productively and collaboratively we will develop a temporary cultural quarter / cultural zone until 2024, with local, supra-regional and international appeal!
The Tangente St.Pölten, with all its framework conditions created by various actors, offers the perfect starting point for a hitherto unseen and serious experiment at the interface between culture and urban development. With a clever use of means and resources, a sustainable best-practice example could be created here that would have a long-term impact on the city and its cultural scene. Since a number of local cultural actors have already settled in and around the Löwenhof and the property is (as far as we know) also owned by the city, we think it makes sense to expand this infrastructure, together with the local initiatives and to add infrastructure that makes sense both for the festival and for longer-term use, such as the expansion of artists:inside apartments, open workshops and studio spaces. Additional siting of smaller temporary pop-up stores and socio-cultural uses to occupy the vacant spaces between the peaks, may also be useful and contribute to a culturally dense neighborhood that is sustainable without major events. This would be best practice not only in terms of sustainable and contemporary cultural production, but also in the context of contemporary and forward-looking experimental urban development.
The concept pays attention to the following points from the actual analysis of "unused or little used potentials and resources of the cultural city of St. Pölten" (cultural strategy p. 19):
And to the following strategic guidelines:
In particular, to: 2) Use open spaces and spatial resources culturally! In addition to the best possible use and further development of existing cultural infrastructures, fallow or currently not culturally used places are understood and used as possibility spaces - this also includes public space. In the context of temporary or permanent performances, they are to serve as a field of experimentation and thus reveal potential uses. Artistic and cultural offerings in public spaces - generally "free and outside! - will be developed more intensively and with a claim to high quality and accessibility. It is important that art and cultural institutions also find their way out into public space. (cultural strategy p. 32)
But also on 3) promoting cultural participation and 4) making art and culture accessible (cultural strategy p. 34).
In the fields of action, measures and goals of the cultural strategy, our proposal also covers several fields - in particular, of course, the "rethinking of public space" (cultural strategy p. 54).
Our idea also fits in well with the guiding themes and visions of the stp 25|50 master plan:
The characteristics of a city laboratory and a temporary test zone also allow for the integration of future, as yet unforeseeable, points of contact as well as other actors and institutions into the idea.
Source: www.st-poelten2024.eu/de/konzepte/kulturstrategie
The concept we propose requires a processual implementation that must be carried out continuously and transparently. Even more than building a festival architecture, building and forming networks, communities and ultimately a new neighborhood becomes the focus of our artistic effort. This process becomes very communication intensive and sensitive. Based on our experience in this field, we estimate the project to be feasible within the time frame. A prerequisite for this, however, is the full support and cooperation of and with the city administration. From our point of view, the concept is scalable in different scales and remains flexible until 2024, as long as the Löwenhof is available as real estate of the city for our project and temporary artistic interventions in the street space (such as street painting, lighting, furniture, etc.) are enabled and supported by the city.
