In June 2000 Elisabeth Schimana and Markus Seidl started with the following mission:
"A farming village in Upper Austria is sought, whose inhabitants are ready to discuss the following questions with us:
What does comfort mean?
Is it comfortable to do nothing?
What does it mean to do nothing?
Who is allowed to do what about doing nothing?
The results form seven days of doing nothing. substitute personnel and catering will be provided!"
more >>> nichtstun.org
Elisabeth Schimana 2017
With the title “Das Ende der Gemütlichkeit” (The End of Congeniality) the Festival of Regions responded in its call for projects in the year 2000 to a sharp political change in Austria. It was the beginning of the so-called Black-Blue coalition between the ÖVP and FPÖ. Compliments to the people in charge back then: festival director Ferry Öllinger, business director Uli Böker, and board of directors Franz Fend, Claudia Hutterer, Reinhard Kannonier, Ferry Öllinger, and Rainer Zendron. They were brave! They went with a concept with an unknown outcome and asked for funding to pay people to do nothing. In 2000 a thought that still “turned people’s stomach” – today ordinary.
We need to learn to do nothing. Our society needs a paradigm shift: Not the right to work, but the right to survive!
search: 01 10 2000 - 05 04 200, Mühlviertel, Upper Austria
doing nothing: 25 06 2001 - 29 06 2001, Eberhardschlag
exhibitions
17 06 2004 - 24 07 2004 permanent produktiv WUK, Wien
30 10 2006 - 07 01 2008 bin beschäftigt GAK, Bremen
since 2006 part of Bibliobox
11 07 2008 - 07 09 2008 village people Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg
06 10 2017 – 28 02 2018 mir: the village and the world - an artistic discovery of the Russian village in the commemorative year of the centenary of the Russian Revolution, a project by the Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow, Ploshchad Mira Museum Centre, XII BiennialKrasnoyarsk
Feature 55min, 2001 | ORF Ö1 14 07 2001
Film 23min 2001 | subtitles: Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, German
screenings and discussions
23 08 2001 Heimatfilm festival , Freistadt
?? ?? 2001 kunst-stücke ORF
04 11 2004 Haus der Dorfgemeinschaft, Maria Neustift
21 05 2005 MyVillages , Ditchling
30 05 2005 Schauspielhaus, Hamburg
09 09 2006 Worldwide in Arnhem
21 02 2007 Lernmesse Bremen
30 05 2009 Blumberg , Vienna
09 10 2009 city hall , Hohenstein
31 10 2009 landmade. , Havelland
07 11 2010 Sophiensäle , Berlin
14/15 07 2011 10 years jubilee in Eberhardschlag
08 08 2011 Schuften und Faulenzen , Nairs
20 06 2012 Kinok, St. Gallen | Geld für Alle
31 03 2017 Kultur im Dorf – Dorfkultur | Symposium der TKI – Tiroler Kulturinitiativen
