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

The Stadtwerkstatt (STWST) is the oldest 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 research 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 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.

[ … ]

So the questions about why this research …
the Stadtwerkstatt from a feminist perspective …

That was actually immediately understandable … …
very carried the whole thing …
There were clear reactions that it was high time … …
an important project, as far as the house is concerned … …
… but also in general, concerning the time, the bigger whole of the society …

[ … ]

Many had something to overcome especially in the early days of the house … … …
what one had to deal with permanently and has to deal with …
the small town, the small-mindedness, family damages …
a restrictive society … authorities …
and again authorities …
and no place for anyone … …

and then an association gets to work …
starts to create a place for itself with actionism and art …
according to its own rules …

[ … ]

And this in turn also causes fights

[ … ]

One could bracket a research about the STWST with many thematic approaches …
with art and life, for example …
the hodgepodge of people … the early housing project, the housing struggle …
the autonomous cultural association …
… the publicity that was generated …
… the self-empowerment, appropriation …
in the core of art and media art projects …

Until today these fields of action exist …
and have continued and developed …
… and until today art, music, nightlife, subculture … … …
and of course conflicts

[ … ]

… … and then the so-called STWST aesthetics over the years …
a la “STWST has always done everything differently” …

andandand …

[ … ]

… and now …
… now we come along with the women …

regarding feminism, basic things have been developed in the house …
and as we know, it is an anachronism to talk about men and women…

… and very soon we had this word, …

… the “Herzblutwiese” … …

… the term already came up when we generally dealt with the Stadtwerkstatt archive …

… and there was always again:

So much heart blood on the Herzblutwiese … …

On the Herzblutwiese undoubtedly men and women …

and it is always such a question … how much gender such a lifeblood can have …

in this common sphere of revolt …

but then again quite clearly: the underrepresentation! …
… so little lasting visibility of women
in a publication only ONE printed mail of a woman
the subsequent narrowing of the view to a few projects and protagonists.

And so we actually focused on the STWST women …

And we do not only think of single individuals …
but a group of women remembers

… because … many were stadtwerkstatt

[ … ]

MORE INFOS TO COME.

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Contact:
herzblutwiese@stwst.at

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HERZBLUTWIESE STADTWERKSTATT
Research project, 2020ff

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Initiated and mainly responsible by:
Stadtwerkstatt STWST / Tanja Brandmayr and Claudia Dworschak

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Photo subject façade: Working on the façade design “Sgraffito Alchemia”, 1983
Photo: Stadtwerkstatt Archive
Photographer: unknown
At the picture, Woman in Dress: Erika Wolfinger
Also in the picture:
Top: Franz Blaas (centre), Werner Katzmair (right), Georg Ritter (left)
Middle: Robert Oppeneiger (from behind)
Bottom: Fredi Wögerbauer

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Photo subject wheelbarrow : Working on STWST, early 1980ies
Photo: Stadtwerkstatt Archive
Photographer: unknown
At the picture, woman at the wheelbarrow: Rita Schmalnauer
On the picture, woman in the background: Gisela Porod

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The project Herzblutwiese STWST was also in the timeline of the exhibition What the Fem*? Feminist Perspectives 1950 to Today at the Stadtmuseum Nordico. O-Ton Nordico: “In six thematic rooms, contemporary artistic positions together with historical artefacts lead us through a lively discourse through feminism. It's about Austrian history with a focus on Linz, facts, feelings, experiences, subjective realities and current attitudes.”

What the Fem*? Feminist Perspectives 1950 to Today
Nordico Stadtmuseum
11 Nov 2022 - 28 May 2023
https://www.nordico.at/