We / / Here. The so-called subculture

For decades, grassroots initiatives and cultural practitioners have fought for spaces in the city – spaces for alternative realities, spaces for expression.

Launched in 2014 as a collection project, the Innsbruck Subculture Archive offers initial insights into this alternative history of the city of Innsbruck. For a long time, so-called subculture was not considered worthy of documentation or inclusion in collections. Yet subculture has always been, and continues to be, a force that shapes society and paves the way for a constantly evolving approach to youth culture. In this exhibition, Innsbruck’s alternative history was told through the lens of specific venues and the key figures active there, and examined in the context of the anti-cultural sentiment prevalent in the ‘Holy Land of Tyrol’. Taking various music scenes as its starting point, the exhibition invited visitors on a journey through different venues, scenes and musicians. It offered insights into a different Innsbruck and long-forgotten venues, such as the Kennedyhaus, the Komm, the Akt, the Haus am Haven and the Utopia, right through to cultural bastions that still exist today, such as the Z6, the Workstation and the Treibhaus. The exhibition offered a journey from the past to the present of Innsbruck’s subculture, which is also responsible for making the city what it is today.