In 2019 and 2020, the main topic of SOHO in Ottakring will be:

“Let’s get to the point!
About freedom of expression and the struggle for it.”

In October 2019 SOHO in Ottakring will exhibit positions of the four artists Karolina Breguła, Miklós Erhardt, Lena Lapschina and Hansel Sato in the Old Cinema of the Sandleitenhof. The artists Karolina Breguła (P) and Miklós Erhardt (H) will present their work in the context of the political situation in neighboring Poland and Hungary. The exhibition will be a demanding and at the same time low-threshold discussion of freedom of expression.

With an intensive placement program, which will be developped by students of the “IKL – Institute for Artistic Teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts”  an audience will be addressed, which little or hardly visits exhibitions in the center of Vienna. Past experience has shown that the exhibitions in the Old Cinema are attended by a local as well as city wide audience.

The exhibition will feature a supporting program with a moderated debate with public figures and a lively audience, a thematic evening entitled “Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech – Searching for Urban Democracy”.

In the spirit of continuity and visibility of SOHO in Ottakring, the exhibition 2019 is an important part of opening and focusing the topic of SOHO in Ottakring 2019/20.

The anniversary of 20 years of SOHO in Ottakring will also be celebrated in 2019. The celebration will take place on 4 October at the same time as the presentation of the book “Destabilized Ground” about SOHO in Ottakring 2008 – 2018.

The project “The City as Text” is a continuous project in cooperation with artist and urban researcher Karsten Michael Drohsel. The project will be a regular and modular project in the neighborhood as an involved project in 2019 and 2020. In 2020, the results will be presented during the festival.