The next chapter of the light and sound festival in 2026

In autumn 2026, the KLANGLICHT idea will also shine in Vienna. With KLANGLICHT IM PARK - The Sound of Light, the light and sound art exhibition will come to the Schwarzenberg Garden near the Belvedere — and to Vienna — for the very first time.

As an extension of KLANGLICHT at Schloss Eggenberg, the Vienna project places the Schwarzenberg Garden at its centre: a historic space shaped by both nature and culture. International, national and local artists will create site-specific light and sound installations that respond sensitively to the garden’s unique character.

The aim is to let visitors experience the garden as a resonant space — a place for slowing down, becoming more aware and reflecting.

The established KLANGLICHT festival in Graz will take place in 2026 as a multi-week exhibition at Schloss Eggenberg, a place that is far more than a Baroque monument: it is a time machine built in stone. This interplay of reason, myth and imagination forms the starting point for the curatorial idea behind KLANGLICHT 2026 in Graz.

KLANGLICHT — a shining fixture in Graz for more than 10 years

It all began on 2 May 2015. As night fell over the city, the rear façade of the Graz Opera lit up for the first time in colourful, dancing light — offering many people, who had until then seen the building mainly as a city landmark, a new glimpse into the world inside the opera house.

What was originally initiated as a one-off project by Bernhard Rinner, Managing Director of Bühnen Graz, has grown over the past decade into Austria’s largest light and sound festival — and has become a firm fixture of the cultural life of Graz.

“KLANGLICHT has made Graz the capital of light art in Austria,” ORF stated in its national coverage. More than 108,000 visitors attended the anniversary edition in October 2025, experiencing artistic interventions of sound and light across the city centre over four evenings.

Sound and light create atmosphere, heighten emotions and make messages more powerful. Without these two elements, the language of theatre would lose some of its most important vocabulary. At the same time, KLANGLICHT is a first encounter with the world of art for many visitors — an experience that can move thousands of people and create truly memorable moments.

Since 2015, the festival in Graz has been curated by Birgit Lill-Schnabl. Against this background, the festival’s programme places a strong focus on collaboration with artists. Over the past ten years, 120 installations have been presented in cooperation with major international names such as Olafur Eliasson, Brigitte Kowanz, Fischli & Weiss, Eva Schlegel and Keith Sonnier, working alongside local and national artists. A full overview can be found in the KLANGLICHT archive.