Crossing Europe: 28 April - 3 May 2026.
The exact date will be announced.

SYNOPSIS: Herzblutwiese Stadtwerkstatt, Essay film, 113 min

Fragments and continuities of feminist history: The essay film ‘Herzblutwiese Stadtwerkstatt’ addresses feminism, equal rights and equality at Stadtwerkstatt, the longest-running autonomous art and culture centre in the city of Linz.

In an environment of aesthetic innovation, social revolt, subversive power and artistic-technological developments, the film interweaves text, interviews, artistic productions and archive material from 1979 to the present day into a narrative with shifting perspectives – thus creating a larger social story that extends beyond the city.

A film by Claudia Dworschak & Tanja Brandmayr.

TRAILER:

MORE INFOS AVAILABLE HERE WHEN IT PREMIERES AT CROSSING EUROPE (End of April 2026).
MORE INFOS AVAILABLE HERE WHEN IT PREMIERES AT CROSSING EUROPE (End of April 2026).

Herzblutwiese > Intro

Herzblutwiese > in other Projects

Herzblutwiese Stadtwerkstatt > Storyline film essay

Herzblutwiese > More Infos and Texts

Herzblutwiese > Notes and contact details

… It was really immediately understandable …
… there were very clear reactions that it was high time …
… an important undertaking, in terms of the house … but also in terms of time and the bigger picture

… and soon we came up with this word …
… the „Herzblutwiese“ … …

… this term came from generally engaging with the Stadtwerkstatt archive …

… with the many battlefields and all the lifeblood poured in all of theses many projects over the years …
… in this collected sphere of revolt …

… and there was always this feeling …
… all that passion and fight on the „Herzblutwiese“.

Autonomy, Art, Media, Music: More than 40 Years of Cultural Association from a Feminist Perspective

The Stadtwerkstatt (STWST) is the earliest autonomous art and culture house in the city of Linz, which has existed since 1979 and has fought against bland art, encrusted structures and a restrictive society from the very beginning. Then as now, the STWST works from an attitude of self-empowerment between art, media, music and the social sphere.

The current film project 'Herzblutwiese Stadtwerkstatt' addresses passions, struggles and the underrepresentation of women in the midst of this scene. Feminism, equal rights and equality are negotiated in an environment of aesthetic innovation, social revolt, subversive power as well as artistic and technological developments. It is about specifics of the scene, larger social questions and artistic, social and emancipative potentials that are carried forward into the present.

The HERZBLUTWIESE STADTWERKSTATT project was initiated by Stadtwerkstatt, Tanja Brandmayr and Claudia Dworschak.

It began with initial research in 2020.

COMPLETION DATE is spring 2026.

The history of the Stadtwerkstatt (STWST) begins in 1979 and develops as an autonomous structure. It emerged as a utopia of art and life, or of a concept of living and working, characterized by the manifestos of the younger avant-garde, by a rejection of a bourgeois culture, and by a critique of the still authoritarian-influenced postwar society. The Stadtwerkstatt asserted itself between the struggle for housing, social change, and art.

Since the 1980s and even before digital media, interactive, hybrid media and telematic formats and a process art as media art emerged. The emergence of the net culture initiative servus.at (1996) and the free radio station FRO (1998) can also be understood historically from these intensive, also highly political debates in the field of art and media. Both developed from the environment of the STWST and are still working in the house of the STWST.

The Stadtwerkstatt was founded as a free artists' collective, shaped Linz's urban history as well as early media art history since the 1980s, and is still an autonomous cultural house in Linz that operates between art, society, and the catchphrases “instigation of initiative” or “transformation of art and society.” Today, the Stadtwerkstatt association consists of the departments New Art Contexts, a media area, the music club and the social spheres of the public areas of the house - the areas work intertwined.

However, the house's history, which is in itself resistant, also reflects conformist social processes: women have played a significant role in various areas of the STWST, have held key positions, have done political work, and have made art. However, a sustained presence and visibility of women has not been established, or at least not enough.

Photo left Working on the façade design “Sgraffito Alchemia”, 1983 / Photo: STWST Archive, Photographer: unknown / Top: Werner Katzmair (right), Franz Blaas, Georg Ritter (left) / Middle: Robert Oppeneiger, Woman in Dress: Erika Wolfinger / Bottom: Fredi Wögerbauer
Photo right: Working on STWST, early 1980ies / Photo: STWST Archive / Photographer: unknown / Woman at the wheelbarrow: Rita Schmalnauer / Background: Gisela Porod

HERZBLUTWIESE STADTWERKSTATT at ‘What the Fem*?’ | Nov 2022 - May 2023
The research and film project was already part of the timeline of the Nordico exhibition 'What the Fem*?' at the beginning of the work process. In the exhibition contemporary artistic positions, historical artefacts and lively discourse guided visitors through feminism.
What the Fem*?

BLOODPROOF OF LIFE, art project | 2023 and 2024
BLOODPROOF OF LIFE was an art project by Stadtwerkstatt as part of STWST48x9 COLD HEAVEN. It was a collective art action and edition in which tapped lifeblood was run through analogue and digital PROOF instances in order to give people back their basic resources and means of production. BLOODPROOF OF LIFE was also conceived as part of the film shoot for HERZBLUTWIESE STADTWERKSTATT – a current art and media art project by STWST in 2023, which was implemented in cooperation with servus.at. One of the partial proofs – the video proof – was also shown in 2024 at AMRO – Art meets Radical Openness, and at STWST48x10 NOPE.
BLOODPROOF bei STWST48x9
VIDEOPROOF bei AMRO2024 VIDEOPROOF bei STWST48x10

GIBLING Ed. 14 | 2025
The 14th edition of the Gibling art and community currency was designed by the temporarily formed KOLLEKTIV HERZBLUTWIESE collective. The collective worked with materials from the film ‘Herzblutwiese Stadtwerkstatt’, which is dedicated to the Stadtwerkstatt cultural initiative from a feminist perspective.
GIBLING 14th edition

More information about the film will be available online here when it premieres at Crossing Europe.
Crossing Europe: 28 April – 3 May 2026. The exact date will be announced shortly.

Image: STWST protest, early 2000s / Photo: STWST Archive / Photographer: unknown / Women on the balcony: Olivia Schütz, Daniela Fürst and others.

Here the initial information on the Crossing Europe website - and the Zeitung Versorgerin:
(Versorgerin links only available in German - please use your trusted translator!)

Crossing Europe PA
Cover Versorgerin 149
Synopsis und Mitwirkende
Haupttext von Claudia Reiche
Kurzinterview Claudia Dworschak, Tanja Brandmayr

More information about the film will be available online here when it premieres at Crossing Europe.
Crossing Europe: 28 April – 3 May 2026. The exact date will be announced shortly.

Contact: herzblutwiese@stwst.at