Linz and the Region

Pressekonferenz Linz und die Region, 26. August 2008

Press Conference,
Tuesday, 26 August 2008, 10 AM
Wissensturm, Room 705
Kärntnerstraße 26, 4020 Linz

Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture refers to Linz AND the region. Both the Province of Upper Austria’s capital city and its surrounding area are inseparably integrated within the Linz09 program framework. Inherent in the very title “Capital of Culture” is the involvement of the host city’s environs. Linz09 aims to accent the cultural, political and economic linkages that comprise the interaction between Linz and its surrounding region.

Several Upper Austrian regions are already playing a role in the Linz09 program. They’ll be settings for projects of many different genres and formats including festivals, operas, concerts, plays and symposia. Thus, the people of these regions will be members of the Linz09 cast, crew and audience. And that goes for other Upper Austrian cities too: Wels, Steyr, Gmunden, Traun and others will be integral parts of the Capital of Culture lineup.

This process of integrating the region is not only taking place on the programming level. In developing an across-the-board Capital of Culture year tourism strategy, Linz is working together with Upper Austrian recreation and vacation destinations: in cooperative efforts that are getting regional tourism associations—Salzkammergut and Dachstein, for instance—involved in Linz09 projects, in conjunction with the Linz09-Hospitality City initiative that will also feature host regions beyond the city limits of Europe’s 2009 Capital of Culture, as well as in wide-ranging marketing activities such as info stands, billboards, and brochures.

The objectives of this comprehensive collaboration between Linz and the regions are sustainably developing tourism, improving infrastructure, artistic networking, establishing Linz as a destination between Vienna and Salzburg, and endowing Upper Austria with a higher-profile image in culture, political life and tourism.

Selection of regional projects:

Journey Time / Mühlviertel
What you really need / Wels
Kulturbaden / Ottensheim
Fluid Borders / Ottensheim
Landscape Opera / Ulrichsberg
EU Art Network / Traun
Circus / Linz, Schärding, Gmunden
Kaleidophon / Ulrichsberg
Phonomanie / Ulrichsberg
Upper Austrian Monastery Concerts / St. Florian
I like to move it, move it – The Big Linz09 School Project / Throughout Upper Austria

Attendees included Deputy Mayor Erich Watzl (Chairman of the Linz09 Board of Directors), Martin Heller (Linz09 Artistic Director), Ulrich Fuchs (Linz09 Deputy Artistic Director and head of project development), Ottensheim Mayor Ulrike Böker (Kulturbaden), Alois Fischer (Landscape Opera), Claudia Weinzierl and Christian Denkmaier (Journey Time).

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More about Circus
More about EU-Art-Network
More about Fluid Borders
More about Kaleidophon
More about Kulturbaden
More about Landscape Opera
More about OÖ Stiftskonzerte
More about Phonomanie
More about the productions of Theater Hausruck
More about Journey Time
More about What you really need