Can Milo Rau transform Vienna Festival with a new constitution?
Natasha Tripney
This year’s Wiener Festwochen, ended on June 23 with a statement of intent. It was Swiss director Milo Rau’s first year as artistic director of the Vienna Festival, one of Europe’s biggest cultural events, and the former NTGent director reframed it as the Free Republic of Vienna.
This year, 96% of the 49,000 tickets were sold, but that doesn’t count people who went to free events, workshops and debates, or visited the festival hub. Overall, it had about 100,000 visitors. From an attendance perspective, it was a success, but Rau is not content simply to put bums on seats. He wants to alter how the festival operates, to make lasting structural changes.
One of his interventions included creating a council of local experts and citizens from all parts of society to write a constitution as a blueprint for future festivals. The council reflected the city’s make-up, with people from different income brackets and age groups; people with disabilities or without passports; people who had engaged with the festival before and those who hadn’t.
Rau is not content simply to put bums on seats. He wants to make lasting structural changes to how the festival operates
Last weekend, the group published the results: a 10-point roadmap for transformation that the festival will begin to implement fully in the autumn. Central to this process has been identifying and acknowledging areas of failure, particularly in terms of social exclusion. The declaration sets out to address this with concrete strategies to transform the festival into something reflecting the city in which it sits and to acknowledge that while it is a significant international arts festival, it has a responsibility to the community. Transparency is also highlighted: the need to demystify the decision-making process and be upfront about financial matters. At a time when sponsorship and ‘art-washing’ are at something of a flashpoint, this feels critical.
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Some points will be easier to implement than others. While Rau changed things at NTGent with his 2018 manifesto, a festival of this scale is a different animal to a Belgian city theatre. Some of the plans might take the whole of his tenure to realise.
Rau is, however, unarguably great at stirring up conversation. The fiesta of banners and balaclavas that opened the festival may have been calculated to wind up as many people as it energised, but it got people talking. He also clearly believes in backing that up with action, and presumably he was appointed to the role with the knowledge that he would shake things up.
Wiener Festwochen is a well-resourced festival in a country in which the far right did dismayingly well in recent European elections (with a parliamentary election in the autumn). Can Rau’s determination to change the festival’s socio-political focus, to reach not just more people but a broader cross-section, have a wider societal impact, or is that a pipe dream?
Time will tell, but it has to be better than complacency, and unquestioningly continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done.
The Free Republic of Vienna declaration in full
First: A versatile programme needs versatile perspectives. Programme design must not be the privilege of a small group of curators. The Free Republic of Vienna will therefore introduce an alternating advisory committee for the programme with local and international expert members.
Second: Comprehensive structural change instead of lip service. The Free Republic of Vienna will define binding quotas for invitations, co-productions and new productions. The global womxn composers platform Academy Second Modernism serves as an example.
Third: The festival belongs to the audience – including the audience that has not yet joined. The radical interconnection of programme design, publicity measures and price policies will serve to call all members of society. The Volksstück/pièce commune, which toured the entire city in cooperation with 23 partners, is a first step in this direction.
Fourth: The political handprint is as important as the ecological footprint. The Free Republic of Vienna will develop a sustainable production, presentation and touring model together with partners from throughout the world. It will provide a stage for the socio-ecological transformation.
Fifth: Change begins inside the institution. Only a team that reflects the entire scope of society can stage a festival that is relevant to the city and the world. The Free Republic of Vienna will aim to depict the whole range of urban societies in its staff structures.
Sixth: Debate instead of backroom diplomacy. The Free Republic of Vienna will develop plain processes and public formats that can be called on in case of controversies and when demands are raised to exclude guests or cancel artistic projects.
Seventh: The stages of this city are for the people who live in the city. We will develop arts projects together with local communities every year. In line with a modernism without borders, we hold that global exchange fosters urban diversity.
Eighth: The Free Republic of Vienna turns theatre into a space of debate. In order to negotiate social realities, we need formats that allow for quick and sustainable reactions to current events. The debates triggered by the Vienna Trials are a first example of this.
Ninth: We are committed to a respectful working environment and against every form of discrimination and violence – in front of, on and behind the stage. Codes of conduct will be developed and implemented together with expert support.
Tenth: Who finances the Wiener Festwochen, who reaps the profits? The Free Republic of Vienna will reinforce measures for the critical examination of the past and present income and fundraising structures of the Wiener Festwochen GesmbH with regard to social and climate justice.
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