Graz, Austria’s second city, is like Vienna without the pomposity. There is the sweep of architectural styles – from gothic to Renaissance to baroque – you’d expect in a former imperial city with a Unesco-listed old town. But it is less traditional than the capital and the vibe is more relaxed, thanks partly to the fact that nearly one person in five is a student, and partly because it hosts the oldest avant garde festival in Europe.
Steirischer Herbst (until 16 October), which has run annually since 1968, will see 650 artists transform the city with 100 projects including screenings, readings, music, theatre and parties. Highlights of this year’s festival include Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at the Kunsthaus, Kneaded Knowledge: The Language of Ceramics (to 19 February 2017).
The music programme features a performance this Saturday by Kairo is Koming, a collective of electronic musicians and DJs from Cairo who came together during the Arab spring. Venues include abandoned factories, swimming pools and mine tunnels.
Graz has a rich history of avant garde art – in 1959, a group of artists, scientists and cultural workers turned a vacant city park cafe, now the Forum Stadtpark, into a venue for cross-genre exhibitions and events. In 2003, Graz was crowned European Capital of Culture, and the city’s futuristic contemporary art museum, the Kunsthaus, was built in the same year. From 2011-13 it was a Unesco City of Design. Ever since, the art scene has been growing, with new architecture such as the steel and glass rooftop Freiblick cafe on the sixth floor of department store Kastner & Öhler, an artwork tunnel at Graz’s main railway station, and the extension of the Joanneum museum complex.
The west bank of the Mur, once the red light district, is now a vibrant, neighbourhood with Bosnian, Serb, Slovenian, Turkish and Albanian communities. Two squares here are being hyped as “the next Neukölln”, after the hip Berlin district, because of the influx of artists and businesses popping up in formerly empty shops.
Griesplatz runs regular street festivals with DJs blaring from balconies and pop-up street markets (the next is on 28 October). Cultural startups from architecture practices to music magazines have moved into the area, along with non-profit Living Rooms, which hosts garden swaps (like a clothes swap but with plants).
Lendplatz, to the north, has flower markets, restaurants and bars that draw a young crowd. Chivito is a tiny Uruguayan bar where the bartender serves mojitos out of a window. Vegetarian restaurants include Mangolds, where diners fill a plate from a daily changing spread and pay by weight. Nearby, the Kunsthaus Café serves tasty suppers of, say, bulgur, falafel and grapefruit, and moonlights as a bar with DJs spinning electronica. This December, the Murinsel, the artificial river island created for the Capital of Culture, reopens with a new bar and cafe.
