VIELGESCHICHTIG. 6 Portraits | 31 Conversations | 6 Languages

Welcome:
Monika Sommer, Director of the House of Austrian History

Speakers:
Friedemann Derschmidt, Project Director "synoptic storytelling in a multidirectional vienna"
Johan F. Hartle, Rector, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Veronica Kaup-Hasler, City Councillor for Culture and Science

The exhibition VIELGESCHICHTIG. 6 Portraits | 31 Conversations | 6 Languages is one of the results of the art-based research project "synoptic storytelling in a multidirectional Vienna" at the Research Laboratory Film and Television at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, led by Friedemann Derschmidt and funded by the City of Vienna, and curated by Alaa Alkurdi, Friedemann Derschmidt, Anne Pritchard-Smith and Karin Schneider. Linguistic accompaniment by Nikolaus Wildner.

Life paths are multi-layered: how much is shown by the exhibition of the artistic video installation VIELGESCHICHTIG. 6 Portraits | 31 Conversations | 6 Languages at the Haus der Geschichte Österreich. Six selected people tell other people about their biography and their origins - with surprising insights: The conversations captured on video show how a person's self-designs change depending on who the counterpart is. Viewers experience an impressive density of human encounters, historical incidents and sometimes silent overtones.

As different as the respective experiences are, the life paths shown have one thing in common: the stories of the narrators connect at certain points with those of Austria and Vienna in particular. Those who immerse themselves in the diverse narratives of the six contemporary witnesses discover deep traces of a globalized contemporary history at the interface between the 20th and 21st centuries. By listening, one becomes part of a narrative web that also questions one's own identity.

The exhibition shows the method of the synoptic portrait developed by Friedemann Derschmidt.