SHOWING STYRIA

With SHOWING STYRIA in 2025, we want to immerse ourselves in the world of the Eggenbergs, open up parallels and build a bridge from the Baroque era to the present day. Schloss Eggenberg will serve as THE big stage, complemented by a three-part pavilion. It will transform history into the present and be a messenger of SHOWING STYRIA - in the federal capital, the regions and beyond. For the 2025 edition, we have chosen a theme that showcases an impressive and historic location in the centre of our Styrian capital from a wide variety of perspectives. Despite its magnificent beauty, we will take a candid look at the history of the palace and the stories of its residents. We look forward to SHOWING STYRIA 2025 that will surprise us in many ways with its immense variety of themes and the parallels it draws.

We are delighted that after two very successful editions, we will be organising SHOWING STYRIA in 2025 at one of our most traditional locations, the World Heritage Site Schloss Eggenberg. Visitors will be given a unique, unadulterated view of the time of the Eggenbergs and the residents of the palace. The special thing about SHOWING STYRIA is the combination of a location with a mobile element that makes it possible to engage with current social issues in a dialogue between disciplines. We would like to retain this model in 2025. The pavilion will complete the show, translating the supposedly bygone world of the Baroque and its challenges into the present. We would like to thank the Provincial Government of Styria for its trust and the opportunity to realise the exhibition once again, as well as all those involved in the upcoming show.

This exhibition will change your perception of Eggenberg forever. We want to make Schloss Eggenberg as a work of art speak for itself and tell you about the many previously unknown stories and messages it harbours. The state rooms and the Planetary Room will return to their original role: they will become stages. Stages for the grand orchestration of a princely family that has managed to mould its failure into an eternal success story with the help of a work of art, a grand illusion that has been maintained for centuries. 2025 will surprise everyone, even those who know Eggenberg.

The pavilion will not deal directly with the historical facts of Schloss Eggenberg. However, there are some remarkable parallels between then and now. The situation during the Thirty Years' War, with its raging recession and the Little Ice Age, is not entirely dissimilar to ours today. War, war-weariness, economic and social upheaval and a fear of climate change characterise our times. Art reacts to this in many different ways. This will also be evident in this project. Established and young as well as local and international positions will concretise this connection between historical and contemporary processes with their projects.

With the Coin Cabinet and the Archaeology Museum, the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ Schloss Eggenberg has two venues that are perfect for enriching the story of the rise, splendour and fall of the Eggenbergs with surprising details. Rare Eggenberg coins and medals are on display in the Coin Cabinet, which also sheds light on the monetary history behind the collapse of the coinage system at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The Archaeology Museum will use a digital reconstruction to transport visitors back to Baroque Graz, thus creating a link between the current World Heritage Sites of Schloss Eggenberg and the Historic Centre of Graz.