eSeLSCHWARM Tanuki's Festwochen throwback
eSeL Foto: Wiener Festwochen: SUN & SEA - Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė (Atelierhaus / Semperdepot, 19.5. - 23.5.2023)
The most anticipated festival in Austria, Wiener Festwochen, ...
... isn’t it too pretentious to say?
... no, it’s not, it's just the author's opinion! but OK:
The most anticipated festival in Vienna, Wiener Festwochen, came to an end last week. Five eSeLSCHWARM contributors attended numerous performances, as well as exhibitions and a novel discourse format.
The solo show OHMMM AGE OMA JE OHOMMA MAMA of Laure Prouvost in Kunsthalle Vienna surprises with a ...dark, (as in: almost no light) intimacy. But while your eyes (and my cam) adjust to the reduced light, sensitivity sharpens and a clever dramaturgy of lights and video is guiding you from installation, to video installation, hanging mobile sculptures - and a surreal almost-campfire.
With this alluring impression eSeLSCHWARM started the Festwochen season!
Tanuki and Wolf's hangout in the new parliament building was the next surprise. Yes, hangout as Anna Rispoli's participatory performance CLOSE ENCOUNTERS took place in the various parliament spaces, including meeting rooms and cabinets. The performance is remarkable and we recommend - if you see any announcements - go for it!
Huge applause to the newly launched event series WIDERSTAND SCHREIBEN focused on female authors whose writing, as well as the processes that surround it, life itself, is resistance, longing, and action toward a better world. Tanuki attended Tsitsi Dangarembga's session whose astute intellect and impeccable sense of humor made the evening unforgettable. Despite Tsitsi's story being filled with difficulties and struggles, she stated, and this is our takeaway from the evening, "If you're alive, there's still hope."
Cunning eSeL visited Festwochen’s highlight before anyone else.The hype surrounding Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė's SUN & SEA performance left eSeL more impressed than the performance itself.
The performance SKATEPARK by Mette Ingvartsen had a smooth start and finish. Wolf found the performers' palpable energy and passion to be the most fascinating aspect of the evening. The audience could already see the skaters as they entered the room. They kept skating even after the performance was over and the audience had left the room.
FEIJOADA by Calixto Neto filled Lia’s heart with joy and empowered her spirit.
Feijoada, as a narration of the oppression, pleasure, and resistance that marginalised African-descendant communities have lived.
Feijoada, as the memories of a historical hunger that has forced them to create unique technologies of survival to be passed down as gifts.
Feijão e ritmo, beans and rhythm, as the source of life for the African diaspora spreading across the seas. Blessings from our ancestors to help us survive the future, which is now.
The race continues as the Festwochen program is just too good to miss. Wu Tsang and the group Moved by the Motion speak definitely "speak fairy". Whether we call it a reinterpretation, reinvention, re-narrating, or “queering” of the well-known PINOCCHIO, it delivers theater magic for kids and adults while conveying cutting-edge truths… that you can find on eSeLSCHWARM Instagram.
SONG OF THE SHANK by George Lewis, Stan Douglas, Jeffery Renard Allen, Ensemble Modern appeared to eSeL and Wallaby as the most divisive piece they have seen at Festwochen.
"Sublime!", Wallaby wrote to our telegram group immediately after seeing William Kentridge’s SIBYL. No wonder the theater piece got an additional performance slot.
2023 Festwochen's party crowd puller is the evening program by Liesl Raff & guests. CLUB LIAISON which is organised in collaboration with Franz Josefs Kai 3 - Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst. With free admission, versatile performances, and smelly latex this place became a haven for more of us.
Text & Posts: Jameli Qairli ‘Tanuki’
Photo: eSeL