OSTRALE´010
Rites of Passage
It is the idea and the aim of OSTRALE to establish art as the property and resource pool of a modern society as well as to organise and use its innovative power economically and socially at regional and international level.
OSTRALE commenced in 2007 as a local initiative and has ever since achieved a broad reach within a short period of time. The exhibition represents the whole spectrum of contemporary art in an interdisciplinary way. Hundreds of national and international artists are invited to take part in the festival, which takes place at a meaningful architectural and historic industrial venue.
Dresden in particular has reached worldwide recognition, being known as “Florence of the Elbe”. However, with OSTRALE the city has gained the potential to set a cultural and touristic antipole to its baroque history and to develop a historical generative, contemporary perspective to the classical exhibition format. Thus, today Dresden can expand its international significance in relation to “modernity”.
The concept of curation enables us to hold an open tender- and application procedure and also to directly invite international artists. In this manner we can achieve maximal scope and an enormous quality of international contemporary art. The artwork can be newly created in situ in our exceptional spacial structures or else be installed in a novel context.
To the festival we primarily invite artists who deal with the material on site and assemble it in new ways. Furthermore, focus is laid on a provocative handling of topics that deal with current worldwide economic and ideological developments. OSTRALE.auswärts will present “art in public space”, which will be noticeable as Street-Art outside of the area of OSTRALE-Zentrum.
Kin.OSTRALE, on the other hand, is a format of contemporary cinema that refers to the exhibited art works in various ways. OSTRALE.xtra programmatically contains all those contemporary forms of expression which are constantly transgressing borders between the performing and visual arts and which deal with space and the outside areas in new ways.
Finally, Out of OSTRALE is a travelling exhibition of selected art works, which takes place subsequent to OSTRALE. The exhibition will be realised in various European cities in the context of European partnerships. Out of OSTRALE will be realised under the precondition that also in other cities empty space will be revived and transformed and that there will be a functional new interpretation of industrial buildings.