The celebration of the Salzburg Festival’s centenary has been extended to 31 August 2021, due to the pandemic. This not only means that we can present the productions originally planned for 2020, but also that we will continue our in-depth examination of the past century and at the same time venture a glimpse at what might lie ahead.
Manifestos serve as key documents of their time. They bring together ideologies, beliefs and opinions. They can trigger revolutions, or underpin radical change and demands. They also provide a written record of trends and developments. These documents can add to historical understanding, while also pointing to the future.
Festival artists will read excerpts from manifestos that made a significant political, social and aesthetic impact on the last century – from Lenin’s ‘Decree on Land’ to Breton’s ‘For an Independent Revolutionary Art’. This will be followed by discussions with top-level experts, in which these historical texts will be analyzed and the question raised: what ingredients should contemporary manifestos contain?