International Evening Projects

Listed below are the projects accepted into this year’s International Evening. This year, we received over twenty proposals. The 6 chosen projects stood out both in their creativity and their unique approach to our theme of ‘Challenging Borders’.

We ask you to read through each document in order to decide which project you would like to take part in. This will be your opportunity to work with fellow scholarship holders, seminar leaders and Alpbach returners before and during the Forum. The groups will then get the chance to perform on stage at the Congress Centre on the 20th of August.

Participating in the International Evening is a unique experience to become involved in the Alpbach community while sharing your opinions and experiences.

Please register your interest here before the 2nd of August. Once the registration deadline has passed, you will receive an email if you have secured a spot on your chosen project.


Project 1: Musical and Live Performance  – “De-fence”

Fences are a great example of the conflicting powers of liberty and security. They can keep the panther in Rilke`s poem in, they can keep the refugees out, they can protect or imprison etc.

The piece “De-fence“ is made for 4-channel speakers. The audience should be in between the four speakers, as the sounds of the fences are circling around in the room, making the audience truly feel like captured in an acoustic prison of different fences.

More information to be found here.

Project 2: Musical Performance – To Be as One

The showcase proposed is the performance of “Imagine” by John Lennon for a SATB choir accompanied by piano and the recitation of the poem “Cloud piece” by Yoko Ono.

Alpbach European Forum is all about this manifesto of idealism and this song should be considered its anthem; because I am not the only dreamer. More than 700 people have applied to be present in this forum that aims to open minds for diversity and to fight for an equal world.

More information to be found here.

Project 3: Theatre, Short Play – Does Climate Change Respect National Boundaries?

Our national borders can no longer protect us from the common enemy; in fact, they are dangerous to us. In order to be safe, we need to go beyond our national boundaries and act on the climate crisis together!

This topic is showcased as a short play with eight actors, using personifications of different themes related to climate change.

More information to be found here.

Project 4: Poetry – Walls of Confusion

The chosen poem focuses on the illusion of separation on a mental and spiritual level, which manifests itself in the physical form of borders.

The poem will be translated by one person of the group from Language A into Language B. That translated poem will then be translated from Language B into Language C by another member of the group. This goes on until the last version of the text will be translated back into the initial language.

More information to be found here.

Project 5: Dance with Spoken Word – There are Two Kinds of People

In this project, the group will come up with and examine alternative borders between people. Instead of gender, should we be dividing people into those who never read a novel twice and those who re-read the same ones eighteen times? Instead of nationality, is your ability to understand (or not) the music of Pet Shop Boys what really defines who you are?

A dance piece combining text and movement will explore these alternative borders.

More information to be found here.

Project 6: Video and live performance – The Artificial Gap

In any given situation that seemingly reunites people, an idea or an utterance in a conversation can very easily divide them and create artificial, but clearly felt and communicated borders.

Based on the “Giant Picnic” by the French Artist JR, both the video and live performance will showcase such situations in order to illustrate how easily borders are formed.

More information to be found here.

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