Lauftheater Graz

This is what it's all about.

The Lauftheater is a house where different art and cultural productions are realized several times a day in intimate spaces: a continuous art production machine, a theatre house that questions and breaks artistic boundaries, a place that tests and defines new art practices.

In the style of a brothel, which can be described as a «heterotopia» (Michel Foucault) - the other place that can resist everything, a localized utopia - a Lauftheater is created for brief and versatile ’satisfaction’, a place that questions all other spaces and places, that can create an illusion that exposes the whole of reality as an illusion.

The program of the first season of Lauftheater is made up exclusively of female artists, a deliberate statement against the still male-dominated world of the performing arts. Women* and BIPoC are systematically underrepresented in it, especially in leadership positions. Art and cultural landscapes are still permeated by patriarchal and hierarchical power structures. In and with the Lauftheater, we question these existing power structures and grievances and want to break through and change this construct.

Art and cultural work deserve to be fairly remunerated. Cultural workers and artists perform valuable work, which in most cases is poorly paid. But without fair remuneration, they cannot continue to work. The knowledge and skills of cultural and artistic workers must be honoured. Art and culture must be worthwhile. For everyone.

The first season of the Lauftheater is to be seen as a pilot project hosted at the Kunst Klub Kräftner, which networks and collaborates with artists and rewards their work fairly.

Who we are

We, the project team, are three women from three different countries. We are three working women, but if we were to name our fields of employment, there could be more than ten women.

Carlotta teaches architecture at Graz University of Technology and works as a spatial and stage designer as well as in production management; Alona has a doctorate in literature and works as a director and author; Sabrina is a trained hairdresser and is studying for a doctorate in cultural anthropology at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz alongside her work as a craftswoman and freelancer. In addition to their employment, all three are involved in care work, social commitment and voluntary work, i.e. unpaid work.

These broad areas of employment bring different perspectives to the project. These are particularly valuable for a project like this. This broad spectrum is expanded in Lauftheater through and with the artists.

We are united by an intersectional feminist approach to art and cultural policy. We question power structures within these and want to break up and change these structures, hierarchies and patriarchal relationships with another theater house, the Lauftheater, and thus contribute to a fairer society!

Why we need your support:

The Lauftheater should become a place that questions and breaks artistic boundaries, a place that tests and defines new art practices. A place for exchange, networking and collaboration. A place for new ideas, that questions and changes the structures within art and cultural policy. At the same time, the Lauftheater also addresses issues such as the lack of gender equality and systematic inequalities as well as the allocation of funding. In addition, it is committed to fair remuneration for artistic and cultural work.

With your contribution to Lauftheater Graz….

• … you support fair pay for artists and cultural workers
• … you finance part of the location rent, remuneration, printing costs, advertising and audience assistance
• … you make it possible to break up and change structures in the art and culture industry
• … you help to realize our pilot project so that we can establish ourselves in the Graz theatre scene.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!