On June 18, 2020, the Austrian diplomatic missions in the United States hosted a virtual closing event of the Austrian-American cultural project No-Place Like the Future – Artists Evoke a World After Corona. Over 30 artists of various fields, based in Austria and the United States, teamed up to create artworks addressing a world after the coronavirus pandemic.
Still from video “Visions of The Future” © Doris Schamp and Phil Savenick
Among the works is the animated video “Sequence of Tenses” by visual artist Adele Razkövi and novelist and co-founder of an app for writers Vikram Chandra, which features a message from the past, and a direction for the future. We also see pianist Kenny Werner philosophize about the state of mind in a utopian situation, where compassion, the love for one another, love for oneself and the end of all self-criticism are key, captured by filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer in a short film. Artist, writer and curator Walter Seidl and visual artist Francis Ruyter present a series of photos of deserted, empty public places, telling the visual story of stay-at-home orders, the void created by this health crisis and drawing attention to the precarious situation of “essential” seasonal agricultural workers. When puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan meets Muppet performer, writer and director Bill Barretta, their creations Berti Blockwardt and Jules Baer take the center stage. Cartoonist and art teacher Doris Schamp together with artist Phil Savenick assemble a group of young creatives to help us visualize a better tomorrow. Their video “Visions of The Future” ends on the high note that “science will get us out of this pandemic, but it is art, that will get us through it”.
© Erwin Wagenhofer and Kenny Werner
This project proves yet again that artists are the ideal visionary guides to the future – no only, but particularly in times of crisis. The artworks they have created are stories of resilience, positivity and cooperation – and they most definitely give us hope. And that’s not a small thing!, said Martin Weiss, the Ambassador of Austria to the United States and a co-organizer of the project.
© Adele Razkövi and Vikram Chandra
No-Place Like the Future – Artists Evoke a World After Corona is a cultural project created by the Austrian diplomatic missions in the United States (Embassy of Austria Washington, D.C., Austrian Cultural Fora in Washington, D.C., and New York, Austrian Consulate-General Los Angeles, as well as Open Austria, Austria’s innovation office in San Francisco) in order to preserve transatlantic cultural exchange and dialogue in times of a global pandemic. The project is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.
© Walter Seidl and Francis Ruyter
© Nikolaus Habjan and Bill Barretta
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