Location: Graz/Vienna Austria
Date: Oct 2024 – Jan 2025
My role: cultural manager, writer, event moderator, speaker
From Oct 2024 to Jan 2025, I joined the team of Office Ukraine Graz, part of the broader Office Ukraine initiative supporting Ukrainian cultural workers in Austria. This internship became possible thanks to the Professional Integration Hub, another program designed for Ukrainian professionals in Austria. It was quite an intense experience, as I moved to Graz from Vienna specifically for this project and still had to visit Vienna every other week for the events organised in frames of the Integration Hub. Still, it was a valuable time that, apart from the deep dive into the local cultural sphere, also brought me many prominent connections and insights. Even though my internship is over, I’m still very much integrated into Graz’s artistic communities and networks. Here I’m sharing the highlights of my stay in Graz.
Office Ukraine is a complex organisation, engaging multiple local actors in different Austrian regions. In Graz, it is hosted by < rotor > Centre for Contemporary Art, which also became my workplace for the internship time. In the pic below, I host the study visit of my fellow Professional Integration Hub participants to the Office Ukraine Graz and <rotor>.
Not only the study visit: I’ve also co-organised and hosted a performance evening in the frames of “Waiting For…” festival in the Theater im Bahnhof as well as the music jam in the Kunst Uni Graz.
Engaged in some paperwork too. Here are my texts for the Office Ukraine newsletter:
https://www.artistshelp-ukraine.at/festival-waiting-for/
https://www.artistshelp-ukraine.at/newsletter/december-2024/
I also didn’t miss the chance to introduce my research to the local public. As a guest speaker at Ziegel, the Ukrainian art atelier and project space, I conducted a lecture on my main academic discipline (Dance Anthropology) and my peculiar findings about Soviet dance, body politics, and cultural propaganda on stage.
Maria Kardash 