Kitchen Party
An elderly lady used to live in this apartment with its for old Viennese apartments typically high ceilings, creaking parquet floor, double windows and patterned paperhangings. Furniture, tiles in the bathroom, curtains, walls – everything is yellowed with subdued, fading away colours. The kitchen – a wood panelled bar parlour with a counter to hand over food and drinks – has an alpine-rustic flair. It recalls the picture of an Austrian Heuriger – an inn mostly on the countryside or in the greener outskirts of the city, where wine from the current year (Heuriger) is served. As with many Heurigen it is hard to find everything in here tasteful and aesthetically appealing. But behind the scratched surface of chintzy neatness the apartment develops its real and rougher charm. For one night the vacant apartment transformed into the noisiest in town. The living room served as a stage for an improvised and interactive performance from the Brooklyn-based Phosphorescent and These Are Powers with some of the enthusiastic music lovers in the audience joining in. After the guerrilla gigging in the living room, people made themselves homey in the old-fashioned kitchen.