Nicole Streitler-Kastberger
The Man Without Qualities
Video
The exhibition Future of Melancholia explores the tensions between nostalgia and belief in progress, which are particularly palpable in cities such as Belgrade, Vienna and Graz. In doing so, it picks up on a melancholy mood that is also reminiscent of the atmosphere of Kakania at the beginning of the 20th century and was condensed into literature by Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities. Musil’s protagonist Ulrich embodies a “sense of possibility” that eludes fixed life plans and oscillates between doubt, irony, devotion and creative negativity. The novel, which is considered an interdiscursive work, questions themes that are still valid today such as lifestyle, responsibility and the tense relationship between action and reflection — questions that remain relevant in our present day after retreat and reflection. In this conversation with Sandro Droschl, Musil expert Nicole Streitler-Kastberger has taken a precise approach to the monumental work and discussed these questions in more detail.
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Nicole Streitler-Kastberger
ist Literaturwissenschaftlerin, Kritikerin und Autorin. 1990 – 1995 Studium in Wien, dann von 1997 – 2000 und 2003 auf zwei „Wellness-Lektoraten“ in Nizza und Bari. Sie hat ihre Dissertation zu Musil als Kritiker (Bern 2006) verfasst und war zwanzig Jahre lang Mitarbeiterin der Wiener Ausgabe der Werke Ödön von Horváths (Berlin 2009 – 2024). Derzeit ist sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (Senior Scientist) am Franz-Nabl-Institut für Literaturforschung der Universität Graz.
More contributions
Kathy Rae Huffman
FROM CYBERFEMINISM
UNTIL NOW
Video
Kathy Rae Huffman’s lecture traces the evolution of cyberfeminism since the 1990s: it connected women in the digital sphere, challenged existing power structures, and presented examples — from VNS Matrix to contemporary digital activism — that highlight critiques of platform corporations, AI cultures, and global inequalities.
Kathy Rae Huffman Karin M. Schmidlechner
Styrian women during and after National Socialism
Video
In her research and in the volume Aus dem Blickfeld (Out of Sight), co-edited with Heimo Halbrainer, Karin Maria Schmidlechner demonstrates that the lived realities of Styrian women during the Nazi era and the postwar period were diverse and ambivalent. Hence, she broadens the scholarly discourse on their daily lives while simultaneously deconstructing common narratives such as that of the conformist woman or the so-called “rubble woman.”
Karin M. Schmidlechner Eva Ursprung
The Art of Surfacing
Slide show
With the exhibition The Art of Surfacing, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark presents the multifaceted work of Austrian artist, musician, and curator Eva Ursprung, who was awarded the Honorary Prize of the Province of Styria in 2024. Her cross-media, feminist, and socially critical approaches revolve around the element of water as a metaphor for change and political and ecological processes.
Slide show Eva Ursprung Susanne Wenger
Àdùnní Olórìṣà
Slide show
Susanne Wenger gilt als eine zentrale Künstlerin Österreichs nach 1945 und als frühe Wegbereiterin des Surrealismus. Ihr Œuvre, das Skulpturen, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Drucke und Batiken umfasst, überschreitet ästhetische Kategorien und verbindet Kunst, Spiritualität und Mythos.
Slide Show Susanne Wenger Tobias Boos
Chainsaws, crypto, corruption.
Argentina between populism and the radical right
Video
Tobias Boos is political scientist at the University of Vienna who specializes in Latin America, populism, and economic developments, such as Argentina’s crisis since the 2000s and current right-wing populist movements like that led by Javier Milei.
Tobias Boos Exhibition Tour
Diego Bianchi: Errores Irreales
Video
Diego Bianchi’s immersive sculptural installations reinterpret the concepts of sculpture and of the torso, taking seriously the sensitivity and distress of the human body as subjected to manifold pressures, and expanding and updating its forms of expression.
Exhibition Tour Diego Bianchi Exhibition Tour
Celina Eceiza: Ofrenda
Video
A metabolic force governs the growth of Celina Eceiza’s work, which involves textile collages, sculptures, paintings and drawings — both tiny and colossal in scale — as laborious as they are elementary. The artist combines handcrafted textile techniques and processes such as patchwork, found object collages and, more recently, chalk pastels, which give her images a new sense of fluidity.
Ausstellungsrundgang Celina Eceiza Annemarie Arzberger
dreamed awake
Slide show
For HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark the artist has developed her first own performative presentation, with a setting for her puppets with three scenes set in an imaginary spaceship, an exhibition, and the spaces that the scenes depict: the Schlouflaboar, the Houloudecks, and the Space Grotto Disco. The piece is a combination of physical theater and puppetry, performed by the artist together with her sister Katharina Arzberger and accompanied by musical interludes arranged by Manuel Obriejtan.
Slide Show Annemarie Arzberger