Eberhard Schrempf I Managing Director Creative Industries Styria
Besides the work and production of Creative Industries Styria, who or which institutions are a fundamental support for Design Month Graz?
Design Month Graz follows a slightly different concept compared to most design festivals. We create a thematic context and provide a platform for visibility for all partners. In addition, Creative Industries Styria, as the organizer, takes responsibility for the festival’s marketing and communication, and thereby also for all content, program points, and contributions presented with a mission. The key difference from other festivals lies in that partners contribute a finished program point to an umbrella system, which is checked by curators for quality and relevance. For example, design institutes at FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, or the Architecture Faculty at the Technical University of Graz are significant partners. Curator Alice Stori-Liechtenstein, operator of Hollenegg Castle for Design, also contributes great program points each year through her initiatives and exhibitions. This is important because it allows the festival to be “co-hosted” by multiple partners. Design Month positions itself as a period, almost like a fifth season for design. Financial support from the Province of Styria, the City of Graz, the tourism board, and sponsors is crucial for our approach of establishing design and creativity as relevant drivers for innovation, or for what’s known as the Triple Transition. That means contributing significantly to digital, green, and societal transformations and giving designers the chance to offer solutions for a sustainable and livable future. Design Month also doesn’t follow a cash-cow policy. We want to provide both local and international creatives a platform for visibility, international exchange, and relevance. If it becomes something that only studios and companies able to pay for can afford, then we turn into a design fair. That’s fine too, but it’s a very different concept.
What were the economic circumstances in which Design Month Graz 2024 was held?
Funding is a constant challenge for us. Although Design Month Graz is the most important event of the year, its realization is a challenge each time.
Did the challenging financial situation impact the level and quality of the program and exhibitions?
Ensuring that doesn’t happen is a balancing act. Naturally, we’re always stretching to make it work. At the same time, expectations keep rising, making it harder to meet our own standards of quality. At some point, it leads to a paradox: High reputation comes with high expectations, but we’re facing flat funding and high inflation. That’s when people usually chime in with the classic advice, “Necessity is the mother of invention” or “You just have to be creative.” I don’t buy into that—we’ve always been creative; otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.
After so many prolific and successful editions with proven benefit for the community: How can it be that you are still struggling every year to get the financial support to organize a festival of this size?
Perhaps it’s because we haven’t been able to embed deeply enough in people’s awareness the relevance of what we do and the value created by the design and creative sector. This means decision-makers can’t justify and defend investments in the creative industries and their events—they prefer the easier route and avoid this tough discussion, as they believe it’s more beneficial for them.
Zooming in on 2024: What were the major differences in this year’s edition?
For the first time in its 15-year history, Design Month Graz had a designated festival center in 2024: the former Hornig Areal behind Graz Main Station. This abandoned industrial site, once a production facility for a well-known Austrian coffee manufacturer, became the focal point of the event this year and the home base for our community. The program centered around the festival hub and expanded from there throughout the city and into various parts of Styria.
Did being the spirit, mentor, and main driver of Design Month Graz somehow create opponents and envy?
There’s always envy and resentment, of course. Honestly, I’m a bit pleased by it. Why? I’m no masochist—though I do sympathize with Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote his seminal work Venus in Furs, which gave rise to the term “masochism,” in Graz—but envy and resentment are things one must earn. When you’re successful and have created something, you’re allowed, with due humility, to be a little proud. And those assholes who attack me for it usually have little of their own to show. They only see the spotlight and media attention—not the sweat and hard work.
What are your expectations for the future?
For the creative community, I hope the design festival continues. Perhaps Design Month will evolve into a Design Biennale—the groundwork is already there. Naturally, the festival will have to continually reinvent itself along with dynamic societal developments. But one thing is hugely important: that we regularly create moments, spaces, and time to provide visibility and a platform for discourse for new trends and developments in design. Including experimentation. That means optimistically, curiously, and critically working toward a better future.
Eberhard Schrempf I Managing Director Creative Industries Styria
This interview was conducted by Tiago Krusse and was originally published on www.designmagazine.pt.