Events

WAITERS DERBY 1987, 88, 89

The French always show great respect for waiters. They appreciate the expert advice waiters provide on which food or wine to select. They admire the skill waiters display when serving and sometimes trust in waiters’ experience in solving small everyday problems. It is no wonder then that Paris was the venue of the first Waiters Derby. Finally, it was the waiting staff, not the kitchen staff, who were in the limelight. People were eager to have the same thing happen in Vienna, too. That is why I staged the first Vienna Waiters Derby on the tenth anniversary of the REISS Bar on September 12, 1987.

My barkeepers, waiters and waitresses gathered together with more than a hundred colleagues from other bars and restaurants for this merry contest. Broken glass in Austria usually means good luck. On this occasion it meant just the opposite. The Waiters Derby was carried out along the Ringstrasse in Vienna, which was specially closed off for the race. The waiters and waitresses had to run from Urania half-way around the Ringstrasse to the City Hall carrying a tray with a bottle of sparkling wine and one glass on it. A diffcult task.

That marked the successful start to a long series of Waiters Derbies.

THANK YOU to then Mayor Helmut Zilk for his generous support and to the Vienna Chamber of Commerce for their collaboration.

SUMMERCITY IN THE CITY 1996

The successful outdoor summer festivals, the lm and other events in the square in front of city hall, and Summerstage did not exactly have a positive e ect on restaurant sales in the Bermudadreieck nightlife district. Something had to happen.

So I came up with an idea I called “Summercity”. It was intended to be a fun place for summer relaxation on Franz Joseph Kai. To make it even more enticing, we showed broadcasts of the Olympic Games from Atlanta on large screens and added water sports and water art to the mix.

To achieve this we built a wall for showing videos in daylight, a large pool, and a biotope featuring a water bar with a sunning terrace on top of it. Owners of eateries in the Bermudadreieck ran twelve food stands. 200 deck chairs were set up along with a of equipment containers holding commercial dishwashers for washing glasses, video equipment, facility and water services plus washrooms with toilets. Though we had the worst summer for a long time with rainy days making up 53% of the total, we still turned a pro t.

HONG KONG MEETS VIENNA 1997

The idea for Sunset City came from Hong Kong being handed over to China.

It was the most moving political event in 1997.
The slow-down program Video wall and 12 monitors: Broadcast of of the hand-over celebrations from Hong Kong, Chinese lms, Chinese music videos. 150 free deck chairs. Meditation standing up. Gako Kyudoja – the art of Japanese archery. Meditation area with instruction in Tai Chi, Wushu, and Shambala. Massage tent with Shiatsu, Thai.
Art tent with the art of ower arranging. Zen Zen tea ceremony. Ink painting.
Chinese art wall for the exhibition of contemporary art. Chinese horoscope tent. Daily dragon dance. Kites for the kids.
Culinary delights.
Hong Kong: Cantonese cuisine Dim Sum, Beijing cuisine, Shanghai cuisine, Korean and Vietnamese cuisine, sushi bar. Vienna
Vienna co eehouse confectionary with ice-cream and fruit-juice bar. Vienna heuriger wine tavern. Vienna beer bar and Vienna soup and beef restaurant.

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2000 VIENNA DREAM PATH

Berenice Darrer

Christoph Mayer

Nina Höchtl

Janine Handler

Romana Brandstätter

Tomak

Lia Kamo

Alexander Steinwendtner

Katrin Schwemle

Pauline Marcelle-Johan

Valentina Koleva

Alexander Peev

Flora Emurlai

Philipp Zurek

Hanna Hollmann

Chan Thean Chie

Christine Beschaner

Looking back on the history of the past century, Sigmund Freud is certainly a major gure among those who gained an outstanding national and international reputation by their life’s work.

At the turn of the millennium, I therefore took the Freud exhibition “Conflict & Culture” as an opportunity for young artists to explore the subject of “Dreams & the Interpretation of Dreams”.

The Vienna Dream Path went from Burgtor through the Hofburg across Michaelerplatz to Graben. The oversized sculptural pictures designed by students of Professor Attersee’s master class – 5 meters high and with a base 2.5 by 2.5 meters – explored the subject “Dreams and the Interpretation of Dreams” in playful, serious and erotic ways.

THANK YOU to Christian Attersee for his dedication and to Grete Laska for giving this project the “go ahead”.

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2000 GATES INTO THE FUTURE

We are entering the next millennium. We are entering the next millennium through the six city gates known as “Stadttore 2000”.

I invited six professors from the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna to enter a competition with their master classes.

Young artists of the next millennium were called upon to explore the topic of “Gates into the New Millennium.”

The task in the “Stadttore” competition was to devise city gates to put up or stage in the areas where the old city gates used to be (Burgtor, Kärntnertor, Schwarzenbergplatz, Stubentor/Wollzeile, Rotenturm/ Rabensteig and Schottentor).

Six projects were selected from the more than 30 designs that were submitted. Using the widest variety of artistic and intellectual approaches, they symbolized entering and leaving the city and associatively leaving and entering the coming millennium.

THANK YOU to the artists for their unbelievably hard work under diffcult conditions.

THANK YOU to City Councilor Grete Laska for your comphrehensive backing of this challenging project.

1. Burgtor: „TOR 2000“
Martina Stoian und Magdalena Gut

2. Kärntnerstraße: „DOMESTIC – FOREIGN“
Eva Maria Egermann, Marlene Haring und Anna Jermolaewa

3. Schwarzenbergplatz: „ÖSTERREICH IST FREI!“
Susanne Schuda und Florian Schmeiser

4. Wollzeile: „GATE 2K“
Karin Stiglmair, Julia Aigner, Sofia Podreka, Magdolna Dobó, Barbara Zaunstöck, Diana Arapovic, Katrin Bieregger, Ivette Lagunes, Sofie Strasser

5. Rabensteig: „DAS SCHWARZE TOR“
Frank Gassner

6. Schottentor: „MILLENIUM – RELATIV“, EIN TOR“
Dieter Matzalik

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2000
AT LAST SAINT STEPHEN’S CATHEDRAL WITH TWO TOWERS

It was my dream to experience Vienna’s Saint Stephen’s Cathedral with two towers on New Year’s Eve 2000 – if only for a few minutes. Huge special spotlights were to be used to shape this tower into a light sculpture. We were ush with excitement as midnight approached. The first strike of the Pummerin bell was the starting signal. Just a pale hint of a light tower appeared. An image from a dream. The sh... weather was responsible. Well, we will just have to wait for New Year’s Eve 3000.