Program of the 32nd Soyfer Symposion
Future | Future: Love | Hate – Jura Soyfer
Jura Soyfer Edition 2012 (Edition in German)
Edition in English
It should never be forgotten that the aim of National Socialism was to turn people into numbers, to destroy them personally and physically, to consign them to oblivion.
Making Jura Soyfer’s liveliness public counteracts this National Socialist strategy. To deal with a specific person, his arts, is an anti-National Socialist strategy.
In the face of the militarization of the world, today’s wars, the play „The End of the World“ by Jura Soyfer was placed at the center of the development of an EU project. Soyfer wrote the play in 1936 in the face of violence in Vienna, in Austria, in Central Europe. He wrote it in the face of an impending world war.
In 2023, the World Museum in Vienna deals with his optimism. Hollywood has discovered this Soyferian play for itself.
In the run-up to the G20 summit on September 9 and 10, 2023 in New Delhi, Soyfer’s play „Broadway Melody 1492“ appeared in Hindi in the important literary journal Saar Sansaar, edited by Amrit Mehta, who also translated Soyfer’s play into Hindi.
The EU project for the play „The End of the World“ gave rise to the Ruse Talks as well as several theatre projects. As part of the symposion, the productions of Divadlo Feste (premiere: 3.9.2023) and TheaterArche (12.9.2023) will be shown.
An essential part of the EU project, however, was the Virtual Soyfer Archive, the extensive scientific work and, above all, the translations of Jura Soyfer’s works.
A central importance of the play lies in the literary representation of today’s forms of communication. The anti-democratic narrative of evil has returned to many media outlets in Europe. The linear counterstatements are not really effective. Soyfer has shown other ways that became effective, as evidenced by the linguistic, theatrical interpretations of his plays.
An essential part of the program of the 32nd symposion will therefore be the analyzes of the play „The End of the World“ in many languages. It will be an interactive conference via Channel Jura Soyfer, which will also be promoted in a special way: via networks, Academia.edu, Google, etc. This will be a part of the program in the form of a conversation from a „studio“.
Another essential part of the program will be literature, the arts. The arts are changing in the context of the new public spheres. In this sense, too, Soyfer’s lyrics are today’s texts.
It was theatres that made Soyfer’s texts available to a wide audience (1992: exhibition Jura Soyfer and Theatre/ it was shown in 35 countries). Music in particular played a role in this context. There are current, significant contributions on many stages.
But the 32nd Soyfer Symposion is not limited to the audience in the Jura Soyfer Center, in the TheaterArche, in the Banquet Halls of the districts Simmering and Mariahilf, to the virtual networks. It’s about generating attention beyond that. With InfoScreen, up to one million people are expected to perceive that Soyfer is alive. With the help of the Homepage, Jura Soyfer Online, Jura Soyfer Channel, the Virtual Soyfer Archive, a lasting effect is to be created. Media cooperation is being attempted in a new way. The aim is still to make Soyfer’s world texts accessible to a world audience.
Requests, proposals for contributions, participations: arlt@soyfer.at
Documentations:
Jura Soyfer Online
Jura Soyfer Channel
Coordinator:
Sc.Dir.Dr. Herbert Arlt
Jura Soyfer Society
President
arlt@soyfer.at