1.3. – 5.3.2023
“(Unlikely) Alliances” is this year’s motto of the Graz Elevate Festival.
The interdisciplinary program of discourse, art and music enables a critical-political discourse on questions of the future, on fundamental rights and freedoms, on questions of democracy and the design of the necessary social-ecological change.
The Elevate Festival will be opened in the large theater hall of the Graz Orpheum by the Swiss writer Sibylle Berg, one of the most well-known contemporary writers and dramaturges in the German-speaking world. From Thursday, the Heimatsaal in the Graz Folklore Museum will be a place of discussion with national and international guests for three days. Social and individual change processes, activism, the digital world and democracy and network politics will be discussed.
The beginning of the discourse days is all about social movements and activism: How much common ground is needed for the common cause, what challenges arise from group identities and privileges when creating effective alliances and what role do generational conflicts and identity politics play in the formation of alliances? Among others, the climate activist and author Lena Schilling, the art and cultural theorist Jörg Scheller and the social scientist, DJ and promoter Romualdo Ramos will be discussing this.
Furthermore, geopolitical developments and failures in the relationship between the Global South and the South in times of advancing hyper-globalization, armed conflicts over resources and land as well as worldwide migration and flight movements are examined.
In the days that followed, the effects of digital technologies on democracy and freedom of expression, digital liberties and the need for digital regulation were discussed.
The conclusion and highlight of this year’s discourse program is the philosopher Slavoj Žižek with his lecture “Only A Catastrophe Can Save Us”. His lecture can also be followed via live stream on the festival homepage.
As always, the music program, which extends over the entire length of the festival, offers a colorful and multifaceted mix of local and international artists, such as the Italian sound magician Caterina Barbieri and the Polish-American electronic guru Bogdan Raczynski.
The art program also takes place in public space: Among other things, eight historical city map frames made of cast iron serve as a projection screen for various artists and collectives for their ideas on the festival theme.
Elevate Festival 2023
01.03. – 05.03. 2023
Graz, various locations
www.elevate.at
