Arena (Vienna)

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Exterior view of the arena (2007)

The arena is an event location in Vienna - Landstrasse , which sees itself as an alternative cultural center , especially for youth culture, concerts of various kinds and other music events. In summer it is also used as an open-air cinema. The arena is located in an industrial environment in the Erdberg district and was created from an area in the Sankt Marx district that was previously used as a slaughterhouse . It is run by the Forum Arena Wien association, which works autonomously and on a grassroots basis .

history

The historic administration building of the arena
Access to the large hall, the former machine house
Inside the event building

From 1970 onwards, the Wiener Festwochen under the direction of Ulrich Baumgartner was the Festwochen Arena, an alternative event. The founder, director and organizer of the first “Arena 70” in the Museum of the 20th Century was Wolfgang Lesowsky , who gathered the avant-garde from literature, music and theater such as HC Artmann , Alfred Kolleritsch , Wolfgang Bauer , Gunter Falk and Gerhard for a few weeks Rühm , Andreas Okopenko , Erich Fried , Erwin Piplits , Ram Chandra Mistry, the New York street theater group “La Mama” a. v. a.

On his own responsibility, Lesowsky also took over the management of the subsequent “Arena 70/2” in the former variety theater and nightclub “Casanova” ( Vienna-Innere Stadt , Dorotheergasse 6–8). The ( unsubsidized ) series of events, which was supposed to run from November 10th to December 31st, 1970, was terminated on December 12th due to reduced public interest and the associated debts and not least because of complaints from the theater police. No solution could be found immediately for the problem of continuing the open house as an expression of the underground's will.

In January 1971, a resurrection of Arena 70 was reported for March of the same year with funds from the Swiss Pro Helvetia foundation , whereby, in view of the expected rental costs, the renewed use of the Casanova nightclub was shown to be unlikely. Wolfgang Lesowsky, at that time still burdened with the financial liabilities of the Herbstarena , was granted a bridging loan with a view to subsidizing it .

1971–1974 the Wiener Festwochen continued an avant-garde theater under the title “Arena” in various places, since 1975 performances have taken place in the former foreign slaughterhouse Sankt Marx (built in 1916 as Kontumaz-Markt and Seuchenhof ). In 1976, after the end of the event program, the local buildings were to be demolished and a textile center built there. However, these plans led to massive protests, also because the cultural offerings at that time left a lot to be desired anyway.

At the end of June 1976 this culminated in the occupation of the arena area, which lasted more than three months and in which, for example, personalities from the Austropop scene also took part with performances. The city of Vienna initially reacted wait-and-see. Large parts of the Viennese population supported the demand to keep the arena as a permanent cultural center. A compromise was made more difficult, however, by the fact that the area was already firmly secured to the Schöps textile chain , which already had concrete plans for demolition and new construction, and the sanitary conditions became increasingly poor. Various possible solutions failed, and the situation became increasingly tense. In October 1976, the building of the foreign slaughterhouse was finally demolished, whereby the occupation was relatively non-violent and without large police operations. Today there is the fashion center (MGC), which is used as a textile wholesale center, office building and partly for events.

However, the city continued to offer the arena the former inland slaughterhouse to the north (built in 1909/10 as a municipal pig slaughterhouse ). This proposal has now been taken up by some groups, but others viewed any negotiations on it as "treason". In July 1977 an agreement was finally reached, so that the arena has been housed on the premises there ever since.

The site

Amanda Palmer concert in the hall (2011)
"Dreiraum"
Outdoor stage
The old chimney, visible from afar

The arena event area essentially consists of an outdoor area and the following buildings:

  • Small hall (with the "three-room lounge", also intended for smaller film and theater screenings, capacity: 240 people)
  • Large hall (with large grandstand, capacity: 935 people)
  • Outdoor stage (capacity: 3,000 people)
  • Passage (behind the open-air stage, accessible for delivery traffic from Baumgasse)
  • Beisl (Viennese expression for a restaurant)
  • Administration building

There are several bars . Food and snacks are usually sold as required at stands set up in the outdoor area.

The bare brick walls from the earlier industrial architecture are partially covered with graffiti and give the arena its special charm. A chimney that can be seen from afar has also been preserved.

Regular events

Regularly recurring events in the arena include Roadtrip To Outta Space , Therapy Sessions , Mainframe , Eyesprung and Iceberg , Badlands Massacre , the Local Heroes band competition and, in summer, the Arena Beer Week and the Arena Summer Cinema . Until 2013, the annual FM4 birthday party also took place in the arena.

literature

  • Arena documentation . In: Wasp's Nest. Magazine for useful texts and images . No. 23 (published July 12, 1976). Group wasp nest, Vienna 1976.
  • Heinz Riedler: Arena. Vienna Sankt Marx. Summer 1976. Exhibition . Sn, Vienna 1976, OBV .
  • Slaughterhouse arena. Vienna, St. Marx . Date of publication: 1976: 1-5. Sn, Vienna, OBV .
  • Association for the Promotion of Alternative Communication: Arena-Stadtzeitung (program) . First date of publication: 1978, March 25th / 9th April - 19./30. June. Sn, Vienna, OBV .
  • Association for the Promotion of Alternative Communication: Arena-Stadtzeitung . Date of publication: 1976.6 - 1979. 5.1980 - 7.1982. So that shows are discontinued. Sn, Vienna, OBV .
  • Association Forum Wien Arena: No night. The arena event program . First date of publication: 1982. This means that publication is terminated. Association, Vienna, OBV .
  • Susanna Gisch: The St. Marx Abroad Slaughterhouse as a dramatic venue . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 1991, OBV .
  • Verena Kövari: The "Arena". Alternative culture in Vienna in the 1970s . Thesis. University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Vienna 1997, OBV .
  • Rosemarie Rauscher: Politics in the Underground. On the problem of subculture music venues in Vienna using the example of Arena and Flex . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 1998, OBV .
  • Leonhard Weidinger: Arena. The occupation of the foreign slaughterhouse in St. Marx in the summer of 1976 as a cultural and political event . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 1998, OBV .
  • Thomas Geiblinger: Between subsidies and repression. Subcultural cultural institutions in Vienna and the Viennese municipal administration using the example of Arena, WUK and Flex . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2000, OBV .
  • Robert Foltin : And yet we are moving. Social movements in Austria . edition grundrisse, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-9501925-0-6 .
  • Busy! Struggle for freedom since the 70s . Exhibition catalog of the Wien Museum . Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7076-0413-9 .
  • Johanna Schwarz: The representation of history on television using the example of the 1976 arena occupation . Diploma thesis (MA). University of Applied Sciences in Journalism & New Media, Vienna 2012, OBV . - Full text online (PDF; 0.9 MB) .
  • Michèle Kirchweger: Free spaces for culture in Vienna. The proletarian passion and the arena occupation as a cultural and political upheaval in 1976 . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2015, OBV . - Full text online (PDF; 3.9 MB) .
  • Astrid Angela Pußwald: Differences in the representation of femininity and masculinity in the Austrian newspaper media "Die Kronen Zeitung", "Die Presse" and the "Kurier" based on the "Arena movement" in the summer of 1976. A quantitative content analysis and image analysis over the period from June 27, 1976 to October 11, 1976 . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2015, OBV .
  • Petra Dobersberger: Arena line-up revisited. The occupation of the foreign slaughterhouse St. Marx in 1976 as a place of remembrance of a late 1968 movement . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2017, OBV . - Full text online (PDF; 2.5 MB) .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Traub: Arena 70 Studio of the Wiener Festwochen in the Museum of the 20th Century . Pictorial representation (1-sheet poster). Sn, sl 1970. - Image online .
  2. ↑ Open house for the avant-garde . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 4th 1970, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ The open house will be closed again . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 12, 1970, p. 6 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ↑ New arena in March? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 12, 1971, p. 6 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  5. ^ City of Vienna: Plan for war damage to property, around 1946 .
  6. ^ City of Vienna: Plan for war damage to property, around 1946 .
  7. ↑ arena.co.at: [1] , section information (last accessed on June 18, 2015)
  8. ↑ arena.co.at: [2] , section Information (last accessed on June 18, 2015)
  9. ↑ arena.co.at: [3] , section Information (last accessed on June 18, 2015)
  10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arenabeisl.at
  11. ↑ wasp nest backlist . In: wespennest.at , accessed on November 8, 2010.
  12. ↑ Catalog list Austrian National Library .

Web links

Commons : Arena (Vienna)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 14.8 "  N , 16 ° 24 ′ 46.5"  E