Carinthian foundation awards two projects €100,000 each

The Carinthian Cultural Foundation has selected two winning projects for its latest open call, awarding €100,000 to each, ORF reported. The foundation is funded through a combination of private money and the state of Carinthia.

The fourth open call focused on “Peripheries in Transition”. “It is about making living spaces that do not seem central visible and attractive,” said Monika Kircher, the foundation’s chairwoman. She said the initiative also aimed to break new ground across disciplines, including architecture and science.

The first winning project, “From Klagenfurt to Klagenfurt”, was created by artists Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch. It explores an unusual connection: during a 19th-century Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition, an island in the Arctic was named after Klagenfurt. The artists plan to link the two places through their shared name.

“There is a story connecting the two places, and we want to see what connections we can tell here in Carinthia,” Six said.

The second project, “Resonance of the Tides”, was created by architects Stefan Breuer and Sebastian Hicks. It consists of a large wooden oval containing a forum with 108 chairs. The structure is intended as a space for dialogue and will be installed at various locations until 2028.

“In this way, we want to bring art, science and democracy together in this forum. It is intended to become a space for dialogue in society,” Breuer said.

Both projects aim not only to make art visible but also to create new spaces for encounters and democratic dialogue.