Exhibition "fading fields. Rural Visions Between Imagination and Disappearance"

Courage to write history – from history to HERstory. Gmunden takes on a special role within the program of communale oö 2026: the transition from history to HERstory – women are brought out of the "blind spot" of a male-dominated historiography through a deliberate reinterpretation, and their deeds, experiences and contributions are placed at the center – aspects that were often missing in traditional accounts and continue to be missing.

In 1996, students of an agricultural school were asked, as part of a writing workshop, to imagine what agriculture might look like in 2025. 30 years later, photographer Daniela Köppl – herself part of the class at the time – meets up with her former schoolmates again. She portrays them, reads aloud to them the texts they wrote in their youth, and documents what has become of them. In 2026, their children write a new chapter: Rural Visions 2055. The result is a cross-generational reflection on continuity and loss, on memory and change – a web of archival material, interview fragments and photographs of rural farming life.

In cooperation with communale oö 2026.