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Festival

für

Gegenwarts

Kultur

Highlights

Credit: Léonard Rossi

Call to participate in an theater project

For the theater project "Shared Landscapes - seven pieces between fields and forests" by Caroline Barneaud and Stefan Kaegi we are looking for six people for interviews. What would happen if the landscape became a theater? And what if you were part of this? Would like to be involved?

Credit: Philip Frowein

First Highlights

In cooperation with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten and the Landestheater Niederösterreich, Tangente presents the first productions from the fields of theatre, dance, and music. We will announce the complete programme in November 2023.

See calendar →

Credit: Lorena Moreno Vera

Art Parcours

The Art Parcours is a walk curated by Joanna Warsza and her team. Everyone is invited to discover St. Pölten in a new way. The focus is placed on water and the city’s two rivers – the Traisen and the Mühlbach. Along these waters, different works by approximately 30 Austrian and international artists will explore the festival themes: ecology, democracy, and memory.

Credit: Anna Netouschek

Stadtprojekte

Already in the run-up to the festival, the TangenteStadtprojekte reach out to the people of St. Pölten. Together, we will deal with topics that are of special importance for this place and its inhabitants. Artistic interventions, discussion formats, walks, and workshops invite you to participate and speak your mind, to exchange and network.

Credit: Christian Philipp Müller

Domplatz

The Domplatz in St. Pölten will be one of the main Tangente exhibition venues. A cast of reputable artists are developing works that engage with the history of the site. Archaeological investigations have brought to light the remains of a Roman bath and a 900-year-old cemetery. The first artist invited by Tangente is the Swiss conceptual artist Christian Philipp Müller. His artistic intervention can be seen at the end of September 2023.

Credit: Sven-Julien Kanclerski

Festival Centre

Endboss is an interdisciplinary studio for spatial studies from Hannover. They are a collective of innovative builders who combine architecture and urban planning, visual arts and literature, social sciences and economics. Endboss have been invited to develop a festival centre for Tangente and for the city with a focus on sustainability. Robin Höning and Ivana Rohr took a closer look at St. Pölten during several visits and have already made many friends.

30 March 23

Join our team!

For our interdisciplinary festival with inclusive and ecological focus, we are looking for a Head of Press & Public Relations, a Marketing Manager and a Technical Director as soon as possible. Apply now or tell a friend!

Credit: Léonard Rossi25 April 23

Participate in "Shared Landscapes - seven pieces between fields and forests"!

What if the landscape became a theater? What if art did not depict the environment, but allowed us to experience it together? We are looking for six people for interviews for the theater project "Shared Landscapes" by Caroline Barneaud Stefan Kaegi. Be part of it!

Credit: Jürgen Völkl20 March 23

We want to establish a festival for contemporary culture. Nothing more, nothing less.

Christoph Gurk is the Artistic Director of Tangente St. Pölten and has been working on the realisation of a diverse and multidisciplinary festival programme since 2021. What is he up to and why is it worth visiting St. Pölten?

Credit: Jürgen Völkl20 March 23

Curatorial Statement

For Tangente festival, Joanna Warsza, curator for fine arts, is developing an exhibition in collaboration with the river. From 30 April to 6 October, the work of thirty artists can be seen along the waters of St. Pölten. Read the curator's first statement here.

Credit: Bea Borgers20 March 23

The St. Pölten Tribunal

The destructive potential of globalisation unfolds without regard for any borders. Milo Rau’s opera Justice cross-examines an environmental catastrophe in the Congo as if in a courtroom. Lessons from these events can easily be learned in Austria, too. Ronald Pohl on the Swiss theatre star and his spectacular project for Tangente.

Credit: Romana Schroll20 March 23

Architecture Born under a Lucky Star

Ostentatious festival buildings that vanish without a trace once the show’s over? Not in the case of Endboss. Anna Soucek introduces the collective from Hannover: In a team effort, Endboss devises intriguingly smart building alternatives that emphasise interaction and democratic empowerment. Coming soon to St. Pölten!

Credit: Christian Philipp Müller20 March 23

Bringing life into the living room

Upon invitation of Tangente, Christian Philipp Müller aims to invigorate the redesigned Domplatz with artistic interventions and imbue it with new meaning. Thomas Miessgang on the Swiss artist and his work.

Credit: Jürgen Völkl20 March 23

Making the Invisible Visible

“Art is a language that tells alternative stories about our time. A language that transfers matters-of-fact to new contexts, that interrupts and upends,” says Joanna Warsza. Lorena Moreno Vera and Ala Glasner outline the concepts and principles that guide the curator’s work on Tangente’s Fine Arts programme.

Credit: Max Kropitz1 March 23

Kulturdialog!

Tangente St. Pölten is launching a new discussion series entitled "Kulturdialog!" in cooperation with various cultural initiatives, institutions and cultural venues in St. Pölten. The series will open at Löwinnenhof* (Kulturhauptstart) on 5.4.2023 at 7:30 p.m.

29 March 23

Statement by the Artistic Director

Christoph Gurk, Artistic Director of Tangente St. Pölten, comments on the current political situation in Lower Austria.

Our Mission

Tangente St. Pölten is a multi-disciplinary, socially inclusive, and ecologically oriented festival that takes a social-critical approach. It is targeted toward a local, regional, and international public.

The project is the follow-up to the application for the title of “Cultural Capital of Europe” and is financed in equal measure by the State of Lower Austria and the City of St. Pölten. The team is headed by Christoph Gurk (Artistic Director), Angelika Schopper (Operations Director), and Stefan Mitterer (Finance Director). Topics of global relevance are developed from the city and its history and made tangible. This makes Tangente St. Pölten unique. Art enables people to share surprising, formative, and long-resonating experiences together. This creates a public realm in which everyone feels invited to meet, exchange ideas, debate, and celebrate - and perhaps even to dream of other worlds together. In times of global crises, the future is increasingly observed as a threat. Tangente St. Pölten is concerned with the question of how we can regain the capacity to act and be creative. This is how the visionary, imaginative, and utopian power of art finds its purpose. The goal is to achieve a programme of high artistic quality. The focus is on the visual and dramatic arts, performance, music, and literature. A variety of socio-cultural projects will mobilise the city's community. People from St. Pölten, guests from near and far, will have the experience of being involved in the festival's events.

Background & History

The joint application made by St. Pölten and the State of Lower Austria for the title of “European Capital of Culture 2024” has laid the foundation and framework for the continuing development of St. Pölten as a cultural centre. This will have visibility far beyond the region into neighbouring countries. The initiative was not simply imposed through politics “from on high”, but came from the heart of society itself, out of which emerged a broad spectrum of cultural policy initiatives that continue to have an effect beyond the application process. St. Pölten and the State of Lower Austria, for example, have committed to implementing a series of plans and projects to strengthen the cultural infrastructure. With Tangente St. Pölten, a festival of contemporary arts and culture has now been established. With a view to the year 2024, the festival will bring together the activities of institutions and civil-society stakeholders in a joint presentation that is synchronised in its art and content.

Community & Outreach

As part of the Tangente St. Pölten, sustainable artistic projects, the aim of which is to respond directly to local interests, needs, and infrastructure, will be created across all genres. The goal is to initiate interaction between residents of the city of St. Pölten and the artists of the festival's programme through all phases of the project. Even before the official festival period begins, St. Pölten residents and interested persons are invited to share their knowledge of and access to the city, to network, and to collaborate with regional and international artists from the worlds of dance, theatre, literature, and art. The offer also applies especially to members of structurally disadvantaged population groups. In workshops, discussions, or radio programmes, we want to explore the city and enter into a dialogue: How do we want to make a difference? How do we want to work? How is the digital present changing our everyday lives? And with what consequences for the environment, society, and our bodies? How do we want to feel? What is the scent of the past? How do we want to remember? And above all, how can the global challenges of our times be experienced through concrete local realities?

Do you want to participate and become part of the festival? If you are interested, please contact us at office@tangente-st-poelten.at. We look forward to hearing ideas and having an exchange.