Capital of Culture 2024

“The beautiful shower” at Easter in Hallstatt

Haruko Maeda also performs in the ossuary in Hallstatt.(Bild: Marion Hörmandinger)

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the defining themes of Holy Week in the Christian world. In keeping with this, Japanese artist Haruko Maeda is opening the exhibition series "Over the Threshold" in Hallstatt - a project as part of the "Capital of Culture Salzkammergut 2024".

At Easter, the church celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the most important festival for Christians, but in all other world religions, too, the preoccupation with transience and death is a constant source of legends and representations.

Bonsai made of bones
The Japanese artist Haruko Maeda finds the theme of her art, which she is presenting in Hallstatt for the first time, precisely in this area of tension. She uses the rectory, the ossuary and the crypt with installations that are unobtrusive, simple and even contemplative. She also reveals quite personal things, presenting her grandmother's "Last Meal" or a bonsai made of bones, for example. Corals, ceramics and textiles are transformed into artistic objects reminiscent of relics.

A skeleton decorated with glittering diamonds in the crypt chapel.(Bild: Marion Hörmandinger)

Beauty and pain
She preserves the prepared body of a great tit and adorns a skeleton with glittering decorative diamonds. The appeal of the images and objects lies in the dissonance of beauty and pain. The juxtaposition of European and Japanese mourning culture, which quietly echoes, is also appealing. Above all, there is the impulse for a new beginning after loss. The eerily beautiful production can only be seen in Hallstatt until Good Friday, March 29.

The exhibition by Haruko Maeda is the prelude to the "Across the Threshold" exhibition series. The second part will be presented on June 2, 2024 with works by Aldo Giannotti, Markus Hofer, Jochen Höller, Klara Kohler, Rosmarie Lukasser, Roman Pfeffer, Franz Riedl, Six/Petritsch, Wendelin Pressl and Betty Wimmer.

30 different projects
A total of 30 church projects and initiatives are taking place in the Salzkammergut as part of the Capital of Culture, which are based in parishes and in some cases extend beyond provincial and diocesan borders, i.e. encompass the Upper Austrian and Styrian Salzkammergut, with around 20 parishes actively involved. There are pilgrimage and hiking offers, concerts and readings (parish library, literature ship), culture buddies, a volunteer program to reduce barriers to cultural consumption (RegionalCaritas).