LINZ FMR.
When the city becomes sound.
Thomas Philipp on sound in the Schlossberg tunnels, electronic nights without fences, and the connection between art and public space.
In conversation with Thomas Philipp · LINZ FMR
Organ pipes in a tunnel, Bruckner at a castle gate, hard electronic music above the rooftops of Linz: FMR 26 made Schlossberg audible in different ways. Thomas “Fips” Philipp explains how artworks and locations find each other, why qujOchÖ curates its music programme independently, and what happens when a festival meets its audience without barriers to entry.
LINZ FMR is a festival for art in digital contexts and public spaces. Its fourth edition took place on Linz’s Schlossberg from 3 to 7 June 2026. Together with Jakob Dietrich, Thomas Philipp leads the festival’s direction, conception and curation. In this written interview from October 2026, he reflects on FMR 26 and the possibilities still being discussed for 2028.
Sound beneath Schlossberg
After the Danube riverbank, Mühlkreisbahnhof and the harbour district, FMR 26 came to Schlossberg. What surprised you during the preparations? Can you tell us about a work for which you had to find a different solution on site?
Schlossberg is a very interesting festival location for several reasons. On the one hand, it is right in the middle of the city; on the other, you almost feel as if you are in a green idyll, with a wonderful view across Linz.
We were particularly excited by the different spaces we could use for sound works: Martinskirche, one of Austria’s oldest churches; the entrance to the Schlossmuseum at Rudolfstor; and even the inside of Schlossberg itself. Beneath the hill is a tunnel system several kilometres long, built by the Nazis during the Second World War. It was clear to us that we also wanted to engage with this historically burdened site and realise a sound work there.
Several installations by the Tangible Music Lab at the University of Arts Linz then engaged very sensitively with this particular space, both outside and inside the tunnel system. Axel Orozco’s “Deep Breath”, for example, used old, discarded organ pipes to respond to the emptiness inside the space, allowing the tunnel to be experienced in its own distinctive way.
What we had underestimated, though, were the acoustic conditions inside the hill. Sound behaves completely differently in these long tunnels than in an ordinary room. It travels differently, partly dissipates and is difficult to control. That made the installation quite a challenge, but ultimately we found a very good solution, not least thanks to a lot of patient experimentation and the expertise of the participating artists.
Finding the place for a work
Listening plays an important role in Wolfgang Dorninger’s “Klangfaltungen der Zeiten” and the Tangible Music Lab works. Can you give us an example of how you found the right place for a sound work? What needed to come together?
At LINZ FMR, our curatorial approach generally begins with identifying different locations that might be interesting for particular artistic works. Together with the artists, we then explore the possibilities. Technical feasibility and production naturally play a part. But for us, the decisive factor is always the conceptual connection between a work and its location.
With Wolfgang Dorninger’s “Klangfaltungen der Zeiten”, it became clear fairly quickly that Rudolfstor could be a suitable place. The work consists of several parts and belongs to a larger project scheduled to be performed in 2027. At FMR 26, we presented something of a small preview.
Rudolfstor forms a striking entrance to the Schlossmuseum and the Schlosspark behind it. Dorninger’s work is based on the electronic manipulation of expansive classical music: a slowed-down remix incorporating parts of the original score of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor. We were drawn to the idea of these powerful sounds greeting visitors as they passed through the gate, almost as if they were entering a stately courtyard through a castle gate in centuries past.
The architecture of the place and the monumental quality of the music complemented each other beautifully. Those relationships between artistic work and public space are exactly what LINZ FMR is about.
For us, the decisive factor is always the conceptual connection between a work and its location.
A programme with its own voice
qujOchÖ curated the two music evenings in Schlosspark. How do you develop a programme like that together? What appealed to you about bringing together Apex Anima & FRZNTE, Camilla Sparksss and DJ Terror?
There are close personal and organisational connections between qujOchÖ and LINZ FMR. But it is important to say that qujOchÖ independently curates the music programme for the opening evening and the Concert Night.
Public space is, of course, a particular challenge. In this case, the concerts took place in Schlosspark, directly in front of the historic castle walls. qujOchÖ now has more than 25 years of experience putting on experimental electronic music, with a particular affinity for noise, breakcore and lo-fi. The acts across the two evenings fit well within that tradition.
The programme comes together in different ways: through long-standing personal contacts with artists, but also through booking agencies. With Camilla Sparksss, for example, the opportunity arose to bring her to Linz on her European tour as she travelled from Germany to Italy.
In the case of Apex Anima and FRZNTE, Apex Anima had already contributed a media artwork to FMR 21 at Mühlkreisbahnhof. Their joint performance was also particularly well suited to presentation in public space.
And DJ Terror is an artist we have booked several times at qujOchÖ. She was a wonderful fit for this particular location and a mild June night in Schlosspark. It certainly had something of the raves of earlier times, right in this green idyll above the rooftops of Linz.
No fence in between
At Schlossberg, you also encounter people who haven’t come for a media art festival. Was there a reaction or conversation at FMR 26 that stayed with you, perhaps because someone heard or saw something quite different from what you did?
LINZ FMR deliberately takes place in public space, with free admission and no access restrictions. There is no fence you first have to climb over. Instead, the festival is designed so that everyone moving through that public space encounters media art, whether simply in passing or by engaging more deeply with a work.
The reactions are correspondingly varied. That applies to individual artworks as well as, for example, the Concert Night, which took place right in the city, yet surrounded by greenery, directly in front of the old castle walls. When DJ Terror’s hard electronic music is still booming through Schlosspark late at night, it is a pretty special situation.
That leads to encounters you remember. For instance, a young man came up to us, completely excited, and asked: “Wow, how wild is this? How often does it happen?”
When we explained that FMR is a biennial and only takes place every two years, he had a few tears in his eyes ;-)
What disappears. What stays.
What keeps moving between FMR editions? Is there a collaboration from this year you would like to continue, or an idea for music and public space in Linz that particularly interests you right now?
LINZ FMR is fundamentally conceived as a festival that appears in the city for a few days and then disappears again. The ephemeral is already in the name. Nevertheless, there are collaborations that prove themselves and develop across individual editions. That is especially true of the collaboration between the founding partners: the University of Arts Linz, the media culture initiative servus.at, the art collective qujOchÖ and Atelierhaus Salzamt. At the same time, with every edition we try to establish new collaborations with people and organisations on site. That ranges from major institutions such as the Schlossmuseum of the State of Upper Austria to little local bars and pubs.
Sound plays an important role in every edition: both through sound works in the exhibition in public space and through the concerts on the opening evening and at the Concert Night, which focus primarily on experimental electronic music. Both are closely connected to the festival location, which changes with every edition.
For the next FMR festival in June 2028, we are currently discussing three possible locations: Winterhafen, Parkbad with its ice rink, and — our current favourite — the small airfield in the eastern part of Linz’s harbour district. The airfield in particular would open up entirely new possibilities. We could develop a festival that happens less on the ground and more above it, in the air. That would also be especially interesting for sound works. Just think of engine and rotor sounds, sonic booms, or more generally the many acoustic phenomena associated with flight, height and movement. There could be some very exciting artistic concepts to develop there.
LINZ FMR
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Elias Dietrich · Jakob Dietrich & Thomas Philipp · FMR 26 · Elias Dietrich · MAalex feat. Luigi Grande & Marta Perrone, Tutta Notte Buia · Martinskirche · Elias Dietrich · Axel Orozco, Deep Breath · Schlossbergstollen · Elias Dietrich · Apex Anima & FRZNTE · Schlosspark · Elias Dietrich · Camilla Sparksss · Schlosspark · Elias Dietrich · DJ Terror · Schlosspark