We hear all the time that it's five minutes (or a minute, or even 10 seconds) to noon, to global doomsday (global warming, nuclear war, global pandemic, total digital control over our lives...), so now is the last moment to awaken and stop the catastrophe. But what if the only way to prevent a catastrophe is to assume that it already happened, that the time is five minutes past the apocalyptic zero hour? What if some form of big catastrophe is not just a threat to avoid but also something that is needed to awaken us? Without such a catastrophe, we will just continue to slide towards a self-annihilation. Left to itself, history is not on our side, it works against us, against our survival.

To conclude this years discourse programme, Elevate Festival welcomes Slavoj Žižek to Orpheum Graz. In his lecture "Only A Catastrophe Can Save Us" he asks, in view of global crises and swelling doomsday scenarios: What if the great catastrophe is not just a threat to be avoided; but something necessary to wake us up? Moderated by Viennese director and author Sebastian Brauneis Recorded at Orpheum, Graz on Saturday, 4 March 2023

In cooperation with Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana.

broadcasted live on the free radio stations:Radio Helsinki Graz and Radiofabrik Salzburg