Salt Lake Country

Julia Kospach was born in 1968 and is a culture publicist, literary critic, author, publisher and consultant. She studied linguistics and Slavic studies in Vienna and Paris and became the literary editor of the news magazine profil until 2004. She then worked for André Heller, involved in his international art and culture projects. Since 2006 she has been a freelance writer, writing mainly on literature, cultural history, nature and gardens. Kospach has published numerous books and is based in Vienna and Bad Ischl.

Elisabeth Schweeger was born in Vienna in 1954. Now a cultural manager, she studied comparative literature in Innsbruck, Vienna and Paris. She was a curator for the documenta 87, the Ars Electronica 1988, the European Capital of Culture Berlin 1988 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1984-1992) and commissioner for the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2001, among others. From 1993-2001 she was artistic director at the Marstall theatre and chief dramaturge at the Bavarian State Theatre in Munich, earning the City of Munich Theatre Award in 1999. She was director general at the Frankfurt Playhouse from 2001 to 2009 and at the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover from 2010 to 2015, and director and managing director at the Academy of Performing Arts of Baden-Württemberg from 2014 to 2022. Since November 2021 Schweeger has been artistic managing director of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024. She lives in Germany and Austria.