GRAZ.- The 59th edition of steirischer herbst festival is titled “Red Flags”. Recently, the phrase “red flags” has become primarily associated with dating culture, where it works as a checklist of seemingly innocent habits preemptively interpreted as an omen for future toxic behavior. It is, of course, just a case of how suspicious and mistrustful we have become in general, alerted by minor deviations from the hard line. We tend to welcome cautionary regulations, privileging canceling over confrontation. This is a position steirischer herbst has been challenging for years, if not decades.
Still, all over the world, and the quiet and prosperous Austrian province of Styria is no exception, we see many worrying signs indeed. Some might seem innocuous to an outsider, like the introduction of a new religious festival or a proposal for a house of Volkskultur; some are already not just red flags, but huge fires dangerously spreading out. Anti-discrimination programs are being cut, migrants deported, freedom of speech is threatened, old-school patriarchy is praised and reinforced, contemporary culture is defunded and deprioritized, and even modernity as such is questioned as a false route.
Navigating this field of potential and ongoing conflicts, it is impossible not to notice how everything even slightly “red” becomes a red flag for the political establishment. Even moderate left-wing politics are denounced in today’s ubiquitous neoliberal regimes. Centrists are relabeled as leftist extremists as the center-right quickly slides ever further to the right. Red flags go up even when no one waves an actual red flag: It is enough to mention equality or solidarity.
A rich program of newly commissioned and produced performances, installations, and discussions relate to these themes. On September 24, the festival opens with a musical performance by Julian Warner that refers to local culture wars and revolves around a wrestling match. They are followed by a new choreographic piece by Alex Baczyński-Jenkins that draws on the figure of the angel as a witness to history and, in the next days, an eccentric philosophical play by Lennart Boyd Schürmann set in the devastated world after World War I.
Site-specific performances by Daniel Dominguez Teruel and Stina Fors are inspired by the densely aesthetic visual landscape of Graz, where beauty can camouflage political dramas. Further performances touch upon points such as the precarity of remembrance culture (Franz von Strolchen), the forgotten history of Austrian partisans (Lukas Michelitsch), a brutal patriarchy masquerading as authentic tradition (Die Rabtaldirndln), immigration and racism (Carmen Chraim and Hanik Soleimani), as well as the political complexity of contemporary Iran (Azade Shahmiri), among others.
For its exhibition, which runs through November 15, the festival inhabits a 17th-century house at a busy intersection on the formerly “bad side” of the River Mur, which still divides Graz’s central districts socioeconomically as well as geographically. Abandoned for several years, this building used to be a pseudo-traditional schnitzel restaurant, a “national fortress” located in a diverse neighborhood with several vibrant and precarious diaspora communities.
For “Red Flags”, the house is reimagined as a microcosm of life in today’s danger zone. Immersive installations look at how the culture wars and real wars of our time come home to haunt us, at how the domestic sphere is inevitably permeated by toxic breezes that risk turning into hurricanes. Each room tells its own involved story, selecting from a cast of unexpected neighbors, including cultists, detectives, camgirls, and vampires.
The exhibition and performances of “Red Flags” are accompanied by a keynote lecture by Oxana Timofeeva, the panel discussion “We Have Never Been Antifascists?”, as well as vibrant debates under the title herbst deathmatches.
Participating artists include Rawan Almukhtar, Josefin Arnell, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Vanessa Baird, Lennart Boyd Schürmann, Carmen Chraim, Gabriele Edlbauer and Julia S. Goodman, Daniel Dominguez Teruel, Stina Fors, Francesca Grilli, Leila Hekmat, Max Höfler and Andreas Unterweger, Krõõt Juurak, Nikolay Karabinovych, Alexa Karolinski and Ingo Niermann, Alina Kleytman, Xenia Koghilaki, Lina Majdalanie & Rabih Mroué, Lukas Michelitsch, Csaba Molnár / Nicole Clore, Hendrik Quast, Heather Phillipson, Die Rabtaldirndln, Azade Shahmiri, Hanik Soleimani, Naya de Souza, Franz von Strolchen, Jaro Varga, and Julian Warner.
As ever, steirischer herbst embraces a varied Partner Program by local art institutions and cultural initiatives as well as its festivals-within-the-festival ORF musikprotokoll and Out of Joint.
The full artist list and program will be published online on August 10, 2026.
