Krongasse 20
1050 Vienna
Austria
- Arts
By creating contemporary art exhibitions which bring middle eastern cultures into discusson hinterland is looking for new multidisciplinary approaches: not a typical “white cube“ gallery but a direct confrontation with art, culture, sociology, history and the present. It seeks international cultural exchange to deepen mutual understanding, break barriers and bring people together. An interdisciplinary art space for intercultural and intersocial communication: art as a universal language.
Hinterland wants to act as an intermediary for establishing an international cultural dialogue far from stereotypes : to build bridges that will allow insights into the cultural and artistic live in mostly unknown regions, namly an exchange between East and West.
The main activities of hinterland are the creation and the curating of exhibitions the research in certain fields as well as the organisation of international cooperations in order to bring exhibitions to Austria or to show exhibitions abroad. In addition to that hinterland is organising events like artist talks, concerts, artist studio visits, workshops or lectures.
Examples of succesfull projects are:
1) Where are We?
Artists (most of them living in Austrian) are invited to work on their personal understanding of identity: their personal perception or their historical and/or image of a “national” identity.
Artists: Azra Akšamija, Vooria Aria, Carla Degenhardt, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Clemens Krauss, Constantin Luser/Stefan Arztmann, Lisl Ponger, Frenzi Rigling, Gabriele Sturm, Niko Wahl, Nives Widauer/Ilma Rakus
shown in Tehran (Iran) 2015, Vienna (Austria) 2015, Lahore (Pakistan) 2016, Islamabad (Pakistan) 2016
2) Being Kurdish
"Being kurdish" was the title of a group exhibtion which gathered reflections on kurdish identity through art. The project brought together a huge variety of backgrounds of the artist as well as variety of media.
The aim was to include artists from the different geographical regions of Kurdistan, artists with Kurdish
roots who emigrated as well as artists with no Kurdish roots. All of them realized works of various media that reflect, deconstruct, study, try to understand or tell personal stories on the question "What does it meen to be Kurdish?".
3) Restrictions of the Earth
Characteristics of life on earth transform completely and the sense of belonging is damaged or extinct due to the dynamism of people between geography and culture. The yearning for a world without restrictions has become a struggle for survival in the form of physical and bureaucratic boundaries. This “rootlessness” triggers creativity in the mould of resistance and expressive forms. How do distance and coordinates, memory and historical perception, identification and habits, yearnings and hope, encapsulate themselves within artistic expression? The exhibition ‘Restrictions of the Earth’ engages artists whom first hand have experienced the socio-dynamic shift.
Artists: Osman Kader Ahmed, Vooria Aria, Khadija Baker, Adel Dauood, Niştiman Erdede, Murat Gök, Bahram Hajou, Fatoş Irwen, Azad Nanakeli, Şefik Özcan, Walid Siti
As the main aim of hinterland is to provide intercultural exchange also with non European countries in the Mediterranean area like Marokko, Turkey or Aegypt to only name a few it goes hand in hand with the objectives of the Anna Lindth-Foundation.
We hope that by joining the ALF we get new ideas and possibilities for international cooperations as well as the chance for proper fundings for our projects. Unfortunately it is very hard to convince local government who is giving most of the grants in Austria of the importance of intercultural work. We hope that an internatioanl network that is sharing our aim like the ALF can support us.