Basics Festival 2014

The basics festival was founded in 2003 as a cooperation between four Salzburg cultural and educational institutions: ARGEkultur, galerie5020 and subnet in collaboration with the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (MultiMediaArt). From the first festival edition in 2004 it addressed different application contexts of new media technologies and their effects in art and society. The theme for the basics festival 2014 was “elite. against and with”.

Elites are commonly associated with unjustified privileges, arrogance and aloofness. Elites not only claim a special position, but also the top of the hierarchies. The current boom in the term seems to be tainted with the idea that without its own elite formation, the state with all its institutions and tasks, above all the economy and research, would no longer be able to compete in a globalised world. Art, too, and with it the concept of art, is not infrequently given the label of the elite and exclusive, and its recognition as an elite makes possible the close ties to the circles of power in business and politics.

I was asked to document the basics festival 2014.