Vienna Magistrale

Silvan Hagenbrock

The Vienna Magistrale is a festival to mediate the decision-making processes by the Viennese municipal departments (Magistratsabteilungen) to the public. The project focuses on the theatre of everyday life – and stages the interventions by the city administration artistically.

Who makes the city? Does the city make the city? Do we make the city? Planting greenery on the traffic islands, asphalting works in the districts and mowing the algae in the Danube are some examples of typical urban interventions by the 55 municipal departments of the City of Vienna. By contrast, “urban intervention” is a trendy term that is used to refer to temporary actions by activists, artists and planners. The project Vienna Magistrale asks questions and seeks answers on how these interventions come about, how they work, interact – and how the city is made. Much more than art in public space, the municipal departments shape the surroundings through which we move on a daily basis. Vienna Magistrale is tracing urban interventions from public space back to administrative procedures. It is a project born out of our core values: producing the city as citizens by our own. Our ambition is to convey that not the "up there" own the city, but that it is shaped by complex processes. For this purpose, we labelled the various works done by municipal departments in public space as artistic interventions: This allows a new perspective on seemingly trivial and in everyday life often invisible processes. Individual as well as institutional approaches were discussed in a new and open way together by and with the visitors.

Time
June 2019
Location
Vienna
Team
Silvan Hagenbrock in collaboration with Kollektiv Raumstation
Links
http://magistrale.at/