ERSTE Stiftung

Archive







The archive contains projects which are not active anymore.


  • Alpine Peace Crossing 2009

    A unique chapter in world history was written in Krimml, Austria in 1947 when 5,000 Jewish refugees embarked on an arduous journey to freedom across the Krimmler Tauern Mountains. To mark the event’s 60-year anniversary in 2007, Ernst Löschner, a native of Salzburg, launched the Alpine Peace Crossing initiative and dedicated it to all refugees across the globe.

  • CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 08, Vienna * Bratislava * Budapest

    Within the scope of this project, 30 artists from Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest arranged exhibitions, presentations and DJ sets on the theme of “interactive cooperation” between these three European centres of culture.

  • European Voices II. Cultural Listening and Local Discourse in Multipart Singing in Europe

    This symposium, featuring speakers from across the globe, was accompanied by three concerts by music groups from six European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia). European Voices II was staged by the Institute for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 24 to 26 October 2008. By posing questions on “cultural listening”, on the special qualities and history of multipart singing in Europe and on people’s awareness of musical phenomena in general, the symposium and concerts stimulated public debate on these fascinating musical topics.

  • Flow - Festival of Conversation in Culture and Science

    Flow is an innovative cross-border communication and networking platform for today’s and tomorrow’s young producers of culture, art and knowledge in the countries of the Danube region. Particular emphasis is placed on protagonists who work outside of large, established institutions and are interested in expanding their professional network to enable them to initiate specific projects with people in other countries.

  • Franz Goess. Fortieth Anniversary of the Prague Spring

    The Prague Spring, and its brutal crushing, happened forty years ago. Vienna’s WestLicht gallery of photography, working with the photographer Franz Goess, commemorated this anniversary with an exhibition that delved into these events of exceptional relevance to world history. The exhibition spanned the chronology of events from the reactions to the liberalisation and reform programme of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) under Alexander Dubcek, to the last meeting between the Warsaw Five and the KSČ in Bratislava and then the invasion, images of which were published around the world the very next day, on 22 August 1968.

     

  • Ganz unten. Die Entdeckung des Elends (At Rock Bottom. Uncovering Misery in Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris and New York)

     “Ganz unten”, an exhibition of a fascinating aspect of cultural history, investigated representations of misery in the big cities of Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris and New York and showed how these hidden fringes of society were seen, described and subsequently communicated by the mass media in the 19th and 20th centuries. These images and descriptions of slums raise dnumerous questions and, to this day, proved to be contradictory and ambiguous. What ultimately remains is the question about how much respect was shown for the people concerned and what actual benefit these journalistic incursions had for their lives.

  • JAZZ MEETS KLEZMER

    Klezmer is an East European Jewish music tradition that was very popular until the Jewish mass emigration started at the end of the 19th century. It had a revival in the USA in the 70s and was rediscovered in Europe approximately 15 years ago, but in Romania this boom has not been observed–even well-informed people and intellectuals don’t know Klezmer.
     

  • Jewish Witness to a Romanian Century: Pictures and Stories from the Interviews of Centropa.org

    This exhibition about Jewish life in Romania comprised old family pictures and the stories that go with them. Within the scope of the exhibition, 100 roll-up posters took visitors inside the Romanian Jewish experience – from photos of Jews selling cattle in the 1910s and studio portraits from the 1870s, to photos of teenagers in school in the 1970s and families on holiday in the 1990s.

  • Parish Centre St. Leopold: Pfarrer Weber Hall Inaugurated

    Father Johann Baptist Weber was parish priest in St. Leopold from 1816 to 1830. On 4 October 1819 he opened the “Erste Oesterreichische Spar-Casse” at the parsonage, the first Austrian savings bank. Weber and some other citizens founded this association savings bank to enable access to ordinary people to make provisions for the future and to provide a secure and independent livelihood for themselves and their families. The legal successor of this association was ERSTE Foundation.

    In September 2008 the new Pfarrer Weber Hall was solemnly inaugurated.
     

  • Prague Spring – The End of an Illusion? (conference)

    What was the cultural dimension of the Prague Spring and how great is its historical significance in the European context? These questions were addressed at a conference held at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna on 11 and 12 March 2008. The focus was on illustrating the central moments of the reform process in the light of new research, and thus keeping alive contemporary interest in the Prague Spring, presenting it as an example of resistance against dictatorship and the battle for democracy.

  • Prague 1968. Photographs: Franz Goess

    This exhibition of photographs by the Austrian journalist and photographer Franz Goess was held from 18 August to 12 September 2008 on Wenceslas Square in Prague, illustrating events of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Many of the pictures were displayed for the first time. The exhibition was part of the commemoration ceremonies of the 40th anniversary of the Soviet invasion in 2008.

  • Research on the History of Law in South Eastern Europe

    This international conference at the Faculty of Law at Vienna University brought together renowned scientists and young researchers from South Eastern Europe, in particular from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, to take stock of research work performed thus far and to consider new opportunities for cooperation.

  • Symposium and Joint Young Visual Artist Awards Exhibition in Belgrade, Serbia, July 2008

    This exhibition was held in July 2008 in the capital city of Serbia, Belgrade. The Young Visual Artists Awards program (YVAA) is a major international fellowship award programme for young visual artists in Central and South Eastern Europe, organized by affiliates in nine countries in the region and The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS). It was established by President Vaclav Havel and a group of artists in Czechoslovakia in 1990. The objective is the exchange between artists, art professionals, and the public.

  • The Fall of the 'Iron Curtain' and the Culture of Europe: 1989-2009

    This two-day conference held in Austrian Cultural Forum London in November 2009 commemorated the fall of the 'Iron Curtain' by focusing on its impact on European culture. The end of communism has tended to be discussed mainly in the context of political science and history.

  • Vertriebenes Recht – Erinnerung im Exil (Expelled Law – Exiled Memories)

    Based on the reconstruction of the family history of Karen Frostig, daughter of the displaced Austrian lawyer Benjamin Frostig, Vienna University’s Faculty of Law investigated the role of individual legal practitioners under National Socialism.