From July 13 to 16, 2023, the first Perspectival took place in Damüls and Fontanella under the motto "[Aus]Grenzen" (Beyond), inviting over 500 visitors to discuss, reflect, create, celebrate and argue together within the framework of a wide variety of event formats - for a respectful and tolerant society.
With a mixture of culinary delights, music and exciting participants, such as Angelika Simma Wallinger (Editor-in-Chief of ORF Vorarlberg), Peter Iwaniewicz (Head of the Department of Sustainable Development and Awareness Raising at the BM for Climate Protection) and Jens Schröder (science journalist), the kick-off became a special evening.
On Friday morning, during a hike on the Elsenkopf at [Grenz]Funk, special people such as Nina Horaczek (chief reporter of the Viennese weekly newspaper "Falter") or Marc Girardelli (ex-ski racer) shared borderline stories from their lives.
The swing exhibition opened during the Perspectival addresses the boundaries between the digital world and deceleration and can be visited for the next two years at the FIS Ski Museum Damüls.
The rushed human being who strives from innovation to innovation, always in the feeling of missing something in the attempt of self-optimization. Climate crisis, wars, refugee movements as social conflicts that seem to inexorably take on a life of their own. An insecure humanity is drifting further and further apart into a gap between acceleration and innovation on the one hand and existential crises on the other. It is now becoming obvious that, despite all the progress we have made, we have lost ourselves in many ways and have hardly any answers to the pressing questions and conflicts of our time. Has the mechanization of our environment really led to us having more time and freedom at our disposal? To enjoy more and lead a more relaxed life? To face old age and death in a more relaxed manner? Or is it not rather the case that we have long been caught up in the spiral of acceleration culture and intensity and shy away from the exit in ignorance of what could hold us and the world together and sustain us within?
Can deceleration, a return to seemingly meaningless activity or the playful qualities within us, be a key to getting off the hamster wheel? Could humanity and encounter be a counterweight to insecurity and disorientation? Can we also leave the border of acceleration we come up against here without having to experience an existential loss? Is it possible to experience digitalization and mechanization as supportive again in this context? Could answers to the crises of our time then perhaps also be developed?
The simplicity of the action, the movement, the silence, the calm in the continuous forward and back. The thoughts that wander and can come to themselves.
As an introduction to the exhibition, Wilhelm Schmid (philosopher, Berlin) read from his recently published book: "Schaukeln, die kleine Kunst der Lebensfreude".
Together with the performance artist Nezaket Ekici, the exhibition visitors were invited to the opening, rocking into a poetic space and to accompany the artist audiovisually on her ascent to the summit along the Damülser Schaukelwanderweg. Ms. Ekici read at the opening from her summit diary, which was created on the Damülser Schaukelwanderweg, in which she will record her thoughts, impressions, feelings along the hike and present them from an artist-specific perspective.
Ms. Ekici was accompanied on the walk by film, so that a permanent projection in the exhibition room will remain accessible to visitors for the duration of the exhibition.
This search for traces is expanded by a look into our digital future on the upper floor of the exhibition. With all the opportunities, but also the dangers of our current and future possibilities, it is likely to become increasingly important not to lose sight of people as people themselves. In this sense, it is possible to experiment "with the future" here!
In a second room, the viewers are invited to go through the journey of life pictorially, trusting in the past, present and future, not losing the trace of childhood as well as not shying away from the encounter with old age. This work would not have been realizable in its implementation without our technical possibilities and yet at the same time speaks a human and "decelerated" language.
The framework for the topics touched upon is provided by visual, textual and film material dealing with the history of swinging. We have succeeded in borrowing the original photographs from the book "Frauen, die schaukeln" (Claudia Grabowski, Bremen) for the exhibition, which give a historical insight into the pictures of swinging women from the year 1880 to the 1960s. In terms of art history, there will also be a small excursion into the painting of the swing motif.
Contemporary photographic works are presented by Sarah Solderer in the exhibition, which provides two of her projects from 2017 in the form of photographs and a film: Swings installed at various bus stops in Athens and Cuba.
The swing, which swings back and forth, is a metaphor for the rhythm of the going and coming commuters, in their daily routines: sometimes faster, sometimes slower - on a reduced scale. For Damüls, we will take up and expand these interventions in urban space in a separate project.
