The Festival of Regionshas been exploring and conquering a region or a town in Upper Austria every two years since 1993. Far from the metropolises and cultural centres, a program with contemporary art and culture is designed and communicated to all the residents of a chosen region. Apart from regional, national and international participation by creative artistic and cultural agents, collaboration with local associations, institutions and individuals is sought to anchor the festival in the area and so leave behind traces that are as deep and distinct as can be.

Apart from reinforcing and furthering regional initiatives in the cultural sector, raising awareness of cultural developments is one of the festival’s aims. With the aspects of communication, open dialogue and interconnecting everyday culture and art, the most important tasks of the Festival of Regions are already formulated. Above all, however, a great festival of arts is supposed to be celebrated for which the ingredients: humour, substantive focus and artistic quality, as well as cultural co-existence, provide the spice.

The festival venue of Eferding is known principally as a commercial vegetable growing area, especially as a supplier of mini-gherkins that areharvested by the legendary ‘gherkin flyers’. It is less well-known that Eferding, founded in 1222, is the third oldest town in Austria and can look back on an eventful history that stretches from the Nibelung saga via the peasant uprisings up to the dominant royal house of the Starhembergers. This time we will be engaging with a conservative, good middle-class town. Music has a lively and manifold presence, whereas other forms of contemporary art are not so noticeable.The town has a population of 3,768; the district has 31,700. – As always at the Festival of Regions, the public domain will serve as both a space for artistic action and a hospitable meeting place. There is a variety of interior spaces in the town available for performances and installations.

Digging Up is the motto for the Eferding Festival of Regions. On the one hand, this suits the agricultural character of the place, and on the other, digging up can also bring to the light of day things that have been hidden and covered up. In any case, things first have to be dug up if something new is to grow, if new fruits are to be harvested. The motto is therefore a metaphor for planting today’s art and culture, whereby rare plants and blossoms are hoped for in all possible mutations and variations.

Call for submissions Project proposals are invited from all artistic areas and genres. In an atmosphere of openness, projects with local specificity will be given preference nonetheless, along with endeavours that engage with the town’s social history and draw in as many strata of the population and individual positive forces as possible, for which role we will gladly function as mediator. Connotations with the festival motto of Digging Up will also be considered. However, please do not submit ready-made projects without any connection to the festival’s location or theme.

Deadline for submissions : 16 May 2012

More information: www.fdr.at