Neue Residenz – Max-Gandolph-Bibliothek

For the anniversary exhibition, the resplendent Max Gandolph Bibliothek (Library) is presented as temporary archive of the Salzburg Festival. The archive gathers together documents and materials, statistics and facts, sounds and images, words
and (hi)stories about the people and development of the Festival. At the same time, the archive of the exhibition points to the real Salzburg Festival archive and the safeguarding, documentation and research of its own history as an institution.
As a treasury of knowledge focussed on productions and performances, the real Festival archive, in combination with the historically augmented holdings of costumes, models and props, represents the material memory of the Salzburg Festival.
The actual implementation of the archive is being carried out in the exhibition room by way of several approaches. This includes a chronology of the Festival from 1920 to 2020 with reference to outstanding moments of regional, national and international
history. As a second element, there is a selection of 100 objects opening up chosen views of the Festival’s history since 1920. The third level forms a sound, image and audio archive that invites visitors to embark on their own, self-determined trip
through the Festival. The archive is also being infused with a theatrical life of its own through performance projects: important document bundles from the archive cabinets are being made accessible to the public at specific times that are announced.