60 godina Austrijskog kulturnog foruma

60 years of the Austrian Cultural Forum

What started exactly 60 years ago in Zagreb, in June of 1955, as an „Austrian library“, has been active for decades under the name Austrian Cultural Forum and has an important role in the cultural and scientific exchange with Croatia and South-East Europe. Located at its permanent address in Gundulićeva Street 3, in the Zagreb city centre, the Cultural Forum has been a significant starting point and an important centre for generations of artists and those interested in culture in the entire region. Until the end of the war in the 90s, it covered the whole area of the ex Yugoslavia and it went through rough political times. It has continually been contributing to Croatia’s and her neighbouring countries’ inclusion in the cultural space of the Central Europe and the cultural and scientific dialogue with the European Union.

The Cultural Forum is not only useful and effective place for helping artists, but also an open communicational platform for cultural, educational-political and scientific questions. Promoting contemporary Austrian and regional artistic creation with a special emphasis on young artists was and is in the Forum’s foreground. Along with the great names like Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, Valie Export, Joe Zawinul or Peter Kogler, many younger and less known artists from Austria have performed in Croatia and ex Yugoslavia since the beginnings of the Cultural Forum.

Programme on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Austrian Cultural Forum:

June 11, 2015 Opening of the Austrian Library at the Philosophical Faculty of the University in Zagreb | Opening of the Exhibition about contemporary design from Austria, Klovićevi dvori Gallery | Concert „Tamara Obrovac Ensemble & Radio String Quartet Vienna“, atrium of the Klovićevi dvori Gallery

June 12, 2015 Panel discussion with Daniel Kehlmann, Viktor Žmegač and Dejan Jović; moderator: Seid Serdarević, MSU Zagreb, Gorgona Hall | An evening with Austrian DJs at the rooftop terrace of the MSU Zagreb

June 13, 2015 „Vienna Café“ in Gundulićeva Street