What is 25 peaces?
"25PEACES are interventions in public places, a project consisting of 25 thought-provoking pieces. All projects center around two keywords that will hopefully determine our future: Peace and Freedom." - 25peaces.at

What?
25 peaces is the umbrella term for 25 art projects taking place in Austria throughout 2005.

Why?
25 peaces accompanies the festivities around the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II as well as the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Staatsvertrag.

So what is it all about?
Most of the projects center around events or occurrences between 1944 and 1955, often by simply putting the past into the present in order to remember, provoke or amuse.

For example?
To keep it complete: Each of the 25 peaces has an adjective as its label. Here's the list of the original (German) terms as well as the english translations:

Hey! There are only 24!
The name of the 25th project is not yet released, I know as much as you do!

But I still don't really know what you're talking about..
Here are short descriptions of the projects. If I find enough to write about them (maybe after visiting them) some of them may be moved to their own nodes.. Here we go!

PEACE beschrieben (described)

beschrieben is the name of the webportal found at 25peaces.at. This metaproject provides a summary of all the other projects.

PEACE zerstört (destroyed)

zerstört is one of the coolest projects - and I missed it. It took place on March 12, 2005 (Saturday evening) at three different locations in Vienna's inner city: Stephansplatz, Neuer Markt as well as Albertinaplatz. The date was not chosen accidentally: On March 12, 1945 one of the last and heaviest air raids in the history of Austria took place. On each of the three locations there were visual and acoustical installations, projecting the names of victims of the bombing as well as movies of collapsing house walls onto the claddings of buildings that were completely destroyed during the attack. The projections were carried out by Norbert Chmel, accompanied by records of bombs hitting the ground, alarm sirens and similar things, assembled by Andreas Fabianek.

PEACE ausgelöscht (erased)

ausgelöscht is nothing more than a map of Vienna's first district. The special thing about the map is that all buildings that were destroyed during the aforementioned attack are plotted by simple white spaces. The map was distributed gratis around March 12, 2005. Some other Austrian towns where such maps would be quite interesting (town name followed by percentage of destroyed buildings): Wiener Neustadt (88%), Villach (85%), Klagenfurt (69%).

PEACE rationiert (rationed)

rationiert is a culinary project that is going to take place in May 2005. The association BÖG, consisting of several of the best Austrian restaurants will provide meals, ranging from single portions to full menus, all with less than 850 kilocalories, which was the average amount any grown-up Austrian could consume per day during the occupation. The meals will differ from restaurant to restaurant and will also be inspired by the different occupation zones the restaurants are in: Russian food for the East of Austria, cousine francais for the West!

PEACE beackert (cropped)

beackert revitalizes a phenomenon that could be observed in many destroyed countries after the war: acres. Everywhere. Most significantly in public parks and grass strips. Until May 8, 2005 every Austrian can sign up to become the keeper of one of 60 small parcels located at the Heldenplatz in Vienna (/me scribbles something onto his todo-list) to grow their own vegetables, primarily potatoes. The project will of course end after the harvest.

PEACE beweidet (grazed)

beweidet is quite similar to beackert: During the occupation between 1945 and 1955 the park behind the Belvedere, a Renaissance castle in Vienna that is now used for art exhibitions, was used as feedlot for cows by russian cooks. This custom will be revitalized in May 2005. While many people think of it as a provocation it is nothing more than historical reality. I definitely have to see that.

PEACE befreit (liberated)

befreit deals with a sentence of utmost importance for the history of Austria: "Österreich ist frei" ("Austria is liberated") was yelled by Leopold Figl from the balcony of the aforementioned Belvedere after representatives of all four occupying forces had signed the Staatsvertrag on May 15, 1955. This sentence gave way to the formation of the second Austrian Republic and every pupil is told about this sentence in the first year of primary school. befreit gives every Austrian the chance to yell their own version of Österreich ist frei: For this purpose 9 exact copies of the balcony as well as of all the dignitaries (except Leopold Figl) standing on it were produced. On May 15, 2005 they will be located in all of the 9 Austrian Bundesländer, fixated onto a crane, free to everybody who wants to be standing up there (and screaming something) once.

PEACE geteilt (parted)

geteilt are banners and signs that will be installed in September 2005, pointing out the former borders between the occupation zones, mainly along the main Austrian freeways.

YOU ARE LEAVING THE U.S. ZONE - SIE VERLASSEN JETZT DIE U.S. ZONE

PEACE beschallt (sounded)

beschallt is a special version of the Klangwolke, a sound project in Linz that is presented once a year at the Ars Electronica festival in September. This year's topic of the audivisual show is: What if? What if the negotiations in 1955 would have ended differently? If Austria would have been split up like Germany? Lawine Torrén revisits the years 1968, 1989 and 1995 from different historical approaches.

PEACE verabschiedet (disbanded)

Legend has it that the last soldier leaving Austria on October 26, 1955 was Russian, but in fact it was a British soldier and it was one day earlier (though October 26th is Austria's national holiday). verabschiedet puts the time when the occupying forces were leaving the country right into the present: On October 25, 2005 Russian, French, British and American soldiers will be travelling around in the Vienna Underground. Neat.

PEACE vermutet (assumed)

vermutet is the antithesis to all the other projects: It deals with Austria in 50 years (2055, that is). The project consists mainly of essays by inventive Austrian think tanks.

PEACE beflaggt (flagged)

beflaggt puts the European idea right into our every day life: 25 tramways will be painted like the flags of the 25 members of the European union, cruising through Vienna during 2005 (and maybe even longer). The interior of the trains will also be adjusted accordingly.

PEACE abgehoben (lifted)

abgehoben is linked to Austria's EU-Ratsvorsitz in the first half of 2006: A Viennese shopping mall will be transformed to Europe Avenue, which means it will be filled with lots of flatscreens mirroring the way of living and mood of the 25 EU-members with a costly visual installation.

PEACE vereint (united)

Stage of united is a house in Vienna, consisting of 24 flats. Around spring 2006 families from each EU member state will move into one of the flats, inviting all Austrians (the host family) to welcome and get to know them.


Source for everything: 25peaces.at
All puns intended by the creators of the project. At this point I have to apologize for the heavy use of the word Austria.