THU, OCTOBER 15

Nika Bauman, Maartje Pasman, Sarah Maria Dragović, Brian Lawlor

Costumes and props by: Nika Vrbica (SALICULA), Ana Marković

Zef is the newest music theatre piece of the multidisciplinary ensemble Synesthetic Project. At the core of the project lies the ancient story of Persephone—traditionally one of abduction, rape, a grieving mother, and the cyclical return of the seasons. In Zef, these mythic structures are reframed as reflections of today’s female experience. Drawing from mythology, dreams, feminist theory, and autobiographical fragments, the piece intertwines music, movement, and text and portrays a hybrid, old yet new, figure of Persephone. The four performers on stage invite the audience into an underground club and onto a psychedelic, ridiculous and slightly triggering journey through death and back

Brian Lawlor, the multi-instrumentalist and member of the Synesthetic Project ensemble slips into the role of a DJ, combining beats with live instruments, electronics with traditional music and samples of local bands from the Viennese scene.

with artists Özlem Bulut, Atil Aggündüz and Mahan Mirarab, moderated by the festival manager Ana Marković

We must learn how to live with our shadows. The Open Discussion this year centers around the dark parts of artistic life and expression: shadows of fatigue, burnout, self-doubt, of the clashes of emotional and personal with the professional, of illness and fear, of worry for the safety of our loved ones. Grappling with pain is one of the socially most accepted themes when it comes to describing an artist, but do we manage pain successfully? And how? What shadows does art and culture cast on our lives, and what shadows do our lives cast on our art and work? Can we learn how to be more gentle to ourselves and each other, and create a network of support which would make these shadows bearable?

Özlem Bulut & Orwa Saleh, Victoria Nazarova

Jam el Joy (with Özlem Bulut and Orwa Saleh) is an encounter of sound and image, where the oud, voice and electronic textures weave traditional oriental melodies into something unexpected and alive. A concert unfolds alongside Victoria Nazarova’s digital photographic exhibition, creating a space between memory and movement, roots and transformation. A meeting of cultures, journeys and contemporary expression - where music and images invite us to see and hear familiar things anew.

Golnar Shahyar & Naïma Mazic

Coming together in the format of MUSICAL BODIES for the first time at TAKT Festival, musician/ composer Golnar Shahyar and dancer/ choreographer Naïma Mazic are questioning dualities and life cycles. Reflections on topics such as contradictions of choice and ambivalence of feelings will find their way into the performance that mainly revolves around improvisation with pre-composed elements, such as music written by female composers and choreography. 

Stina Joliden, Cesar Carrera, Hanna Magdalena Gödl, Vida Vojić, Amanda Wisselgren

The Swedish ensemble Cumulus brings one of their “shape-shifting storytelling” performancesfor the first time to Vienna. In the work Symbios, we encounter forms in motion that make the imagination dance. You are invited into a visual language communicating through shifting silhouettes - where each form seems to speak directly to you. With bass and drums that both lead and follow the rhythm of the dance, an experience unfolds where abstract movements express emotions and moods.

Rojin Sharafi, Helena Vancura, Chiara Aprea

Costum Design: Amanda Wisselgren

In the last part of the evening, the format “Fashion Show Reimagined” comes back to this year’s festival edition. The creations of the designer Amanda Wisselgren are worn and explored through improvisation by local contemporary dancers Helena Vancura and Chiara Aprea, accompanied by the music of Rojin Sharafi on live electronics.

Flora Geißelbrecht

 „Grandmother's Evening Gown“ is a solo music theatre piece for viola, voice and shadows. Wearing her grandmother’s evening gown and weaving her favourite song into overtone singing, Geißelbrecht moves through a world of fabric, shadows, music and memory. Handmade shadow play, translucent silk and live transformations reveal and conceal the artist in equal measure, creating a fragile connection between generations of women, artists and stories.

Simone Lorenzo Benini & Miriam Budzáková

In Sandpit, Simone Lorenzo Benini and Miriam Budzáková turn sand into a metaphor for the body, a vessel of infinite possibilities, exploring the ambiguity of our memories, which are often vague and blend with imagination, fears and desires. The body becomes a medium through which memories come to life. Those memories do not simply resurface; they transform and create desires, the libido, new identities and alter egos that we all carry inside us but seldom express. Here, sand becomes a symbolic tool for this transformation. Memories transform into new possibilities of being, merging the past and the present, adopting a variety of ambiguous shapes, drawing on the subconscious and allowing energies, emotions, images and fantasies to surface.