BACK TO NORMALITY

The 10th anniversary of WIENWOCHE – Festival for Art and Activism – prompts this year’s WIENWOCHE-curators Henrie Dennis and Maria Herold to look back under the motto “Back to Normality”, draw conclusions and look ahead as well as question and rethink the current understanding of normality from different perspectives.
Ideas of “normality” are mostly defined by the majority, by those in power and those seeking power. Those who cannot or do not want to fit into the tight corset of the “norm” will find and experience social and structural exclusion.
Currently, development towards a “new normality” appears to be backwards-looking and hardly promises any prospect of fundamental, future-oriented, and progressive extensions of the norm. WIENWOCHE tries to point out this understanding in this year’s edition under the motto “Back to Normality”.
As long as it is normal for discriminatory, racist and exclusionary structures to prevail in society as well as in the cultural sector, one has to work against it.
Moreover, it also raises the question of what we, as a society give and accept as normal, especially when it comes to exploitation of our environment, our planet, corruption, disregard for human rights, dealings with our fellow human beings and the devastating consequences of capitalism.
As curators of the Festival for Art and Activism, we expand gaps and ruptures of normality to question the necessity of their existence and make them seem intangible. We embark on a journey into a fictional future without substantial norms and move into an undefined space.
In order to make this utopia within this festival tangible, projects were chosen that deal with society, solidarity, political participation, sustainability, ecosystems, queer feminism, cohabitation and subversive survival tactics.
Curatorial Directors 2021
Henrie Dennis, Maria Herold