"Paint it black" Auditoriummaximum.org vienna 10th to 14th of March 2010

What is it about? What is going to happen?

This spectacular media event driven by artists and well-known activists of the „civil society“ is going to have the form of a funeral celebration of 5 days for a free education for everyone. We are going to invite public media and the public in general. The funeral is going to be televised throughout Europe and we are going to beg ten thousands of people to dress up in black fitting to the funeral event. As mentioned before we have already the first confirmations of sponsoring and we have also started with talks and organisational issues. The overall dimension of the main stage and the event itself is going to depend on the the rest of the confirmations by sponsors and artist. We will have a definite image of the possible public range before the international press conference at the beginning of March is going to happen.

Why?

It was in October 2009, when a political and social earthquake started from its epicenter – the Auditorium Maximum of the University of Vienna. The movement has spread to over 80 universities world-wide. From California to Indonesia universities have started to become squatted places controlled by their students in form of a grass-roots-movement. These events can be considered as a demonstration of social tensions world-wide on the one hand – and as a proof, that we are able to take charge of the society we live in, if we want. With this event, we take even more charge! At the 11th and 12th of March 2010 ministers of education from 46 european countries are going to visit Vienna and Budapest because of the 10th anniversary of the Bologna Agreement. Facing the situation at the universities and international protests for free education this celebration in the epicenter of the protests appears as a derision of a free and open society and its concerns. This form of leverage of human rights has become more and more a kind of political program in the past few years. Social values have faster and faster been sold out to economic demands of single enterprises. The time has come to join together with all the organisations that have a critical point of view about that and are able to be aware of this call - to stand up against human rights being sold-out. Education is not for sale! If education is controlled by just a few ones, this means the end of critical civilian society.

Definition of our aims: Interaction of three historical venues to transport the whole bandwidth of the educational protest movement into the protests against the Bologna celebrations. A sustainable impact on the views of the live audience and the audience consuming the media reporting the Auditorium Maximum event.

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