The 58th edition of Austria’s interdisciplinary arts festival returns to the point at which it started in 1968: anti-fascist critique in a polarized society filled with right-wing undercurrents. “There is a crude Russian word for extreme dismay—pizdets,” noted curator David Riff during a walkthrough, “and since 2022, there seems to be no end to it.” The festival’s director, Ekaterina Degot, puts it more decorously: “A grim déjà vu reigns.” The attention to the stubborn recurrence of identitarianism, fascism, and war is typical of the festival’s programsince 2018 under Degot and Riff (and their colleagues Pieternel Vermoortel and Gábor Thury), yet this year felt particularly dark.
English
e-Flux Criticism, October 15, 2025
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