In memoriam Barbara Frischmuth

Since the founding of kunstGarten in 2004, the renowned Austrian writer Barbara Frischmuth appeared here for twenty readings. She passed away on 30 March 2025. Honouring her outstanding literary achievement and her long-standing association with kunstGarten, Irmi Horn, joined by Juan Carlos Sungurlian (oud, bouzouki, guitar), presents the traditional August Matinée. In 2002, Frischmuth wrote the monologue Lily’s Zustandekommen especially for Irmi Horn. The programme opens with a performance by Maria Kardash.

Maria Kardash will present a short performance serving as a foretaste on her upcoming collaboration with musician and composer Marichka Chichkova for the exhibition Hybrid Pleasures. Helen Chadwick, supported by Liesl Raff at the Kunsthaus Graz.

In this performance, alongside movement, voice, and music, threads and needles become full-fledged expressive tools through acts of "self-embroidery", wrapping, and untangling. Drawing on the visual language of embroidery and weaving, as well as the soundscapes of Ukrainian musical folklore, the piece reflects on practices historically coded as women’s labour while gently unsettling the roles, rituals, and expectations they carry. It resonates with the shifting realities of wartime Ukraine, where lived experience continually reshapes inherited ideas of gender, care, and courage.

Maria Kardash is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and cultural scholar from Ukraine currently based in Graz for the PhD studies at Kunstuniversitat Graz. Both her artistic and academic work is centered on the human body in motion and corporeal politics.

The performance by Maria Kardash and Maria Chichkova at the Kunsthaus Graz will take place on 19.09.2026 as part of the closing weekend of the exhibition Hybrid Pleasures. Helen Chadwick Supported by Liesl Raff.

Barbara Frischmuth, born in Altaussee (Styria) in 1941, studied Turkish, Hungarian and Oriental Studies and has been a freelance writer ever since. She has been living in Altaussee again for several years. Following her critically acclaimed debut “Die Klosterschule” and the novel “Das Verschwinden des Schattens in der Sonne”, she became best known for the enchanting and whimsical Sternwieser trilogy, which was followed by the Demeter trilogy. In addition to other novels such as “Die Schrift des Freundes”, “Die Entschlüsselung”, “Der Sommer, in dem Anna verschwunden war”, “Vergiss Ägypten” and “Woher wir kommen” (2012), and “Verschüttete Milch” (2019), she has published short stories and essays, as well as the four literary garden diaries “Fingerkraut und Feenhandschuh” (1999), “Snapdragons and Iris Swords” (2003), “Marten, Rose, Finch and Louse” (2007) and “The Irresistible Garden” (2015).

“Recognising oneself in others is an exercise that fills our view of the most mundane aspects of daily life with wonder once more."

The dexterous musician Juan Carlos Sungurlian will play the oud between readings, inspiring the breadth of thought that Barbara Frischmuth calls for in her writings – which explore the conditions of human life – with wisdom, cheerfulness and humour.

Juan Carlos Sungurlian was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, as a second-generation Armenian immigrant, and is a classical and jazz guitarist, as well as a player of the oud (Oriental lute) and bouzouki (Greek stringed instrument). His own multicultural background is likely the reason for his passionate interest in many different cultures and traditions. He is a profound connoisseur of traditional South American music – particularly from Uruguay and Brazil. He began his musical training on the mandolin, later devoting himself to classical and jazz guitar. The artist also takes a keen interest in other traditional stringed instruments: the bouzouki, the oud (Oriental lute), the tar (Armenian guitar) and so on, and he seizes every opportunity to explore them further. Juan Carlos Sungurlian studied at the conservatoires in Montevideo (Uruguay) and Yerevan (Armenia), as well as at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.

For organisational reasons, please register at least 2 hours before the programme begins via kunstgarten@mur.at or +43 316 262787

A collaboration between kunstGarten and Kunsthaus Graz