Spring 2012: the book entitled “Die Ökonomie von Gut und Böse” by the chef-economist of the largest Czech bank, Tomáš Sedláček, is about to become an international bestseller. The key message of this book is both simple and impressive: the entire economy – no matter if in its real or financial nature – is the product of the stories of its actors and the people at its mercy. From the Sumerians until now. Those, who haven’t understood that, won’t be able to understand the ongoing economic crisis.

Summer 2012: each five years, documenta likes to define itself as a major event of the global art scene. In a time that is characterized by macroeconomic and micro-fateful jeremiads, the artists stand aside and let the nature get a word in a great manner.

Fall 2012: Transart – the regional festival of contemporary culture will present stories of our present for the twelfth time; these stories also provide an outlook into future. This year, the main focus will be on nature, on economy and on hybrids that lie in between. Tomáš Sedláček will explain the backgrounds of the current depression by means of his Chamber Theatre; Matthew Herbert will reflect on the quality of the unfinished in dialogue with sounds of nature in front of the Komponierhäsuchen of Gustav Mahler; the pianist Sabine Liebner will review the whole cycles of the “Etudes austraes” by John Cage; Ulf Langheinrich sends us into the deep of subcutaneous vibrations via 3D glasses; Michael Fliri begins his search for a deeper significance of performance; the musicians of the Phace Ensemble transform various living-rooms in Brunico and Bolzano into mini-concert halls; Herman Kolgen derails a train on purpose as a symbol for progress and sends us to the swimming pool with our bathing costumes so that we can experience the feeling of subaqueous life; Matthias Faldbakken dissects an intellectual in the Museion in Bolzano and two major artists like Rebecca Horn and Marina Abramovic reflect their own creative work presenting two films; the world-renowned quartet Arditti particularly attends to regionally prominent composers; a portrait by composer Unsuk Chin provides the festival with Korean-cosmopolitan atmosphere; the collaborations with the Südtiroler Festspiele, the conservatoires of Bolzano and Trento, the Austrian festival Klangspuren and the Haydn Orchestra impressively demonstrate the openness of Transfart towards all those who take the contemporary seriously.

TRANSART12 stands for the immediate, the fearless and the necessary that result in our cultural understanding.