The Kunsthaus Graz 2025 is planning a second international call with the Radical Hope call. With the support of project partner Energie Graz, we are looking for a project for the BIX media façade - the medium at Kunsthaus Graz characterised by light and energy - on a current theme: radical hope.
As an attitude towards the unknown, it is the motto of the hour. In the face of multiple crises, it is important to keep one's nerve and actively listen, as well as to work together with new inventions, technologies and concepts for a hopeful present.
In crisis situations, the realisation that life is fragile, vulnerable and uncontrollable manifests itself. The philosopher Jonathan Lear has developed the concept of "radical hope" for this, which he illustrates using the example of the Crow Indians, whose way of life and culture were destroyed in the mid-19th century. Lear reflects on the possibility of imagining the future under the premise that all previous values and habits lose their validity.
The concept of radical hope makes it possible to orientate oneself in the present, as it does not refer to an object, but to something that is considered positive, even if it cannot yet be concretised. Radical hope manifests itself in the conviction that good is always possible in principle and can transcend human imagination. In crisis situations, we are often confronted with limitations that we once associated with our "good life". Radical hope, on the other hand, allows us to be open to the unknown.
The media façade of the Kunsthaus is a special artistic tool that can be an invitation for artists to test the limits and possibilities of the individual medium and to enter into a relationship with the urban space with the help of light and rhythm. Conceived in 2003 by realities:united as an artistic media space, the façade has had a new programme player since the end of 2024: the BIX-PLAYER, which allows projects for the façade to be planned in advance with the help of films, scrolling texts or NDI streams. Equipped with lamps from a pre-digital era, the programmable and dimmable 946 pixels mediate between times. In the centre of the urban space, as a three-dimensional and curved media wall on the biomorphic architecture of the Kunsthaus Graz, it interacts on several levels with the architecture, the reduced technology and the urban environment.
In recent years, the BIX projects have mostly been conceived in parallel with the exhibitions or separate projects have been curated to run alongside the programme. In 2025, there will be a new format for the BIX with the international call for proposals and its specific characteristics, which can be tried out on the newly revised BIX Creator.
