departure invites to cross-discipline thinking and working

March 11 to 13, 2010, Odeon Theater, Taborstrasse 10, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Around forty top protagonists including matali crasset, Hans Hollein, Bernhard Willhelm, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig…- from the fields of art and culture meet from March 11 to 13, 2010 in Vienna’s Odeon in order to redefine - or even remove – the boundaries between the creative disciplines. Intercreativity is the key word: an approach that questions conventional views and even produces new forms of art. QUER is an event organized by departure–the funding organization and point of contact of the City of Vienna for the creative industries–and is intended to attract a wide audience. Admission is free.

Text becomes sound, and the audio book becomes a “visual book”; fashion leaves the catwalk for the stage or the catwalk itself is turned into a theater; standard classifications are no longer appropriate to describe what’s happening: all of this is evidence that creativity builds on diversity, on contrasts and friction. Boundaries need to be breached to conquer new territories. Nobody knows this better than departure, Vienna’s funding agency for the creative fields of fashion, music, audio-vision, multimedia, design, publishing, art market and architecture. departure has always focused on interdisciplinary projects, as they spur the discourse on perception and development. In a hybrid approach the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and new opportunities open up to deal with the subject area of ”total artwork” in an unconventional way, particularly in our digital age.

Discussion forum and creative laboratory

QUER provides a platform for intercreative thinking and offers both top-caliber participants and an inspiring mix of theory and practice: the event is designed as a forum for lectures, analyses and discussions and is at the same time also a creative laboratory. The thematic block Creative production without boundaries deals with the potentials and risks of intercreativity. Key note speeches, performances and a broad-based panel discussion deal with artistic working processes and intercreativity. The focus of Center stage for intercreativity is on integrating designers, artists, architects and fashion designers into stage productions. Visualization of music as innovative art form is a cooperation with sound:frame and literature lab–from audio book to “visual book” is a creative laboratory for the visualization of literary texts most of which are read live.

Creative industries in the limelight

“We aim at directing the attention to the creative/artistic potential of intercreativity and at preparing the ground for successful projects,“ explains Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Managing Director of departure. “Interdisciplinary approaches and multiplier effects in economy and society enhance the demand for creative achievements and thus strengthen Vienna’s entire creative economy.“ QUER furthermore intends to facilitate the access to cultural output in order to allow a wide audience to participate in art and culture.

http://quer.departure.at