Opening: One Belt. Many Roads

Evening Programme
Guided tour with curators and artists, for press and public 6 pm
Exhibition opening 7 pm
Performances 8 pm

Sainkho Namtchylak / Calligraphy of Sound
A live improvised experimental visual and sound score, by the Tuvan-born overtone singer, artist and lyricist.

Niels Plotard / The Journey
A sound performance by the French artist and dancer as a journey through the projects and themes of One Belt. Many Roads.

artists
Agung Kurniawan / Indonesia, Almagul Menlibayeva / Kazakhstan, Behzad Khosravi Noori / Iran, Pakistan, Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew / Ethiopia, Hatem Bourial / Tunesia, transparadiso (Paul Rajakovics, Barbara Holub) / Italy, Yara Mekawei / Egypt.
A project by Grammatik der Dringlichkeiten (Grammar of Urgencies) (Maren Richter, Klaus Schafler, mit Niels Plotard) / Austria.

In a collaborative experimental setting, One Belt. Many Roads investigates eight sites along China’s “New Silk Road” global infrastructure initiative, examining the effects of neo-colonialism on these places, what new types of dependencies or geographies this entails, and which long-standing mechanisms of dependency are being replicated. The “Belt and Road Initiative”, formerly “One Belt, One Road”, is arguably the most comprehensive global project to accelerate the transport of goods between Asia and Europe (including Austria), by which China aims to declare itself the world’s leading economic power. Various transportation corridors will be built for this purpose to achieve the necessary logistics, both on land (with a gigantic high-speed rail network) and on water.

In the VERSUCHSANSTALT of today’s WUK, originally built as a locomotive and machine factory, eleven collaborators from nine countries, who have been working together since 2021, explore how toxic entanglements and their narratives have local and geopolitical impacts.

Agung Kurniawan / Indonesia, Almagul Menlibayeva / Kazakhstan, Behzad Khosravi Noori / Iran, Pakistan, Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew / Ethiopia, Hatem Bourial / Tunesia, transparadiso (Paul Rajakovics, Barbara Holub) / Italy, Yara Mekawei / Egypt.
A project by Grammatik der Dringlichkeiten (Grammar of Urgencies) (Maren Richter, Klaus Schafler, mit Niels Plotard) / Austria.


Table Notes
Sat, 17.6.2023, 5pm

Statements: Performances, Konzert, Talk
by Agung Kurniawan, Almagul Menlibayeva, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew, Hatem Bourial, Niels Plotard, transparadiso (Paul Rajakovics, Barbara Holub), Yara Mekawei, Grammar of Urgencies (Maren Richter, Klaus Schafler) etc.


Due to the WUK renovation, concerts, performances, exhibitions and children's theatre can temporarily not take place at their usual venues. Under the title "VERSUCHSANSTALT" Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Musik, performing arts and KinderKultur curate the program in the newly renovated project space and interweave their topics and formats in a spatial and content-related juxtaposition and togetherness.