Intertale/Eutopia Stop 5: Kitzbühel/Tirol

Last week saw me in Kitzbühel where a group of artists and art welcomers set up a new group called Kunstbühel in a former cow shed. Kitzbühel is a small town of 8000 inhabitants which is almost totally taken over by high society tourism.

I have seen flats/penthouses for 3, 4 even 13 million here for sale. The average sqm price is 8000 Euros. The village is full of Gucci and glitz tourists, where Champagne is omnipresent on the street cafes from morning to night. Recently - I am told - some 7mio Euros were spent on Swiss consultants to rebrand the place into 'the time is now'. This spring, Praxmaier, the last traditional café closed. Only this week the local authority has signed a contract with Porsche-Tirol.

But there are a few artists and locals who want to claim their home back. The brothers Matthias and Maximilian Bernhardt are some of them. Supported by the local farmers Andi and Beate, they created Kunstbühel and converted an old cow barn into a make-shift gallery and action place. Land (wirt-) schaft: Or it goes not on a cow-hide is their first programme this summer, to which I was kindly invited as part of my journey. My town is the venue inspired talk and workshop somewhat helped to stimulate discussions and ideas of seeking identity through the collaboration with artists in future.

In the past the town built its wealth as a luxury ski resort. With the snow less and less coming, they are thinking of building a fast snow tunnel from the 1600m Hahnenkamm to the village.

On the last day we undertook a ‘Beyond the Clouds’ Walkshop (greatly sponsored with tickets by KitzSki) high up to the Gipfelkreuz (Peak Cross) where we tried to catch some clouds to stimulate the conversations of what to do if the snow remains there up in the clouds.