International Festival of Early Music, New Music and Audiovisual Art
As though by a miracle, the little town at the foot of Werdenberg Castle was spared destruction by fires or military conflict throughout the centuries, and survives unscathed. Today the little gem is one of the most important, still preserved medieval towns in Europe. In 1956, Werdenberg Castle with all its furnishings was bequeathed to the canton of St.Gallen by its last occupant, Frieda Hilty. The castle was subsequently opened to the public. Today it is run by the Werdenberg Castle Association. This non-profit-making organisation is responsible for various areas united under one roof: MUSEUM AND HISTORY, FORUM WERDENBERG (art from the region) and the SCHLOSSMEDIALE.
Founded in 2012, the Schlossmediale is a young festival which draws its creative energies from the place and from the guest artists’ own engagement with the past and the present of the 800 year old castle and its surroundings. The festival thrives on the atmosphere of the place and at the same time enriches the region with new, exciting cultural impulses, attracting visitors from near and far.
Each year the cultural programme at the castle has a different theme, which shapes the programme of the ten-day festival. Ever since it was founded, the Werdenberg Castle Association has defined itself as a platform for contemporary art. SCHLOSSMEDIALE grants are offered every year for an art residency with subsequent participation in an exhibition, thus promoting regional, national and international artists. The five-week art residency gives three young artists the opportunity to create new art in a locale that is steeped in history and to present it in the castle’s special interior spaces as part of a creative open dialogue.
Internationally successful artists come together at this venue to be inspired by the extraordinary atmosphere for their creations, to discover the castle’s ancient stories in order to transform them for the present day. The central figure of the festival is always the castle itself and its history ─ with its origins as an impregnable stronghold, with the almost sacred spaces of the Middle Ages, with wooden interiors and later additions and an acoustic that changes from one floor to the next, and continuing into modern times. Audiences are thus invited on an architectural and musical journey through time. For these very spaces music is composed and art created; the works are consequently tailor-made for the castle.
