Radio Billie Blitz
during winter in the capital of austria, vienna, europe: the 1st district, inner city, is vienna’s old town and extends around the long ringstrasse. the gothic st. stephen’s cathedral offers a magnificent view of st. stephen’s square from its tower. luxurious shops and cafes can be found in the pedestrian zones of kärntner strasse and graben. the surrounding streets are lined with art galleries and restaurants. there was a christmas market at karlsplatz. the art advent is known for being the most beautiful christmas crafts market in vienna.
just a few steps from karlsplatz, past the wien museum construction site, almost 1000sqm of office space have been empty for several years. the austrian painter wolfgang walkensteiner was entrusted with the interim use by a friend architect. he was in contact with the artist gerhard fresacher, and fresacher was in contact with the goto club. with the exhibition „the groupshow,“ goto club brought together several austrian art collectives in the interim-use building of the viennese merchants‘ association. each group occupied a section and had full control over the content of their contribution.
the participating collectives were: A Gift & a Burden, Darkcity, Dessous, GOTO, gottrekorder, Gruppe Bussi,
Gukubi Mato, Lean69 x Fish, Wierheart & Yurun and conte potuto
„the groupshow“ opened
inside the building made of bricks, conte potuto built a gas station out of wood and cardboard. it was equipped with basic sound equipment as well as a kitchen unit and so became the temporary home for the radio station “Radio Billie Blitz” and the bistro “Bistu Billie Blitztro”. during three weeks, conte potuto and various other artists (listed below) were using it as a space to host radioshows, live-concerts, raves, performances, cooking and serving food.
everything audible from inside the gas station was transmitted live over fm broadcasting. the visitors were offered to wear car costumes and tune the built-in radios to fm 108, Radio Billie Blitz’s frequency. Bistu Billie Blitztro equipped them with hand- and homemade snacks and drinks before they took their cruise through the whole show, creating traffic jams on the hallway, annoyingly blocking the view on other artworks and carrying Billie Blitz’s sound out in the world.
participating Artists:
5% Sackl Zement, DJ Diamond, Kurt-7, Cay, Tachnypnoe, a.pet, aksiseda, Gruppe Bussi, DJ Anina, Schlomo Pankreas und Konsorten, Ina Rose
