Archive

Invocation 101*

INVOCATION 101* was produced on a manifold birth jubilee of KARL PRANTL (1923-2010) and created in stages (2023/24…) in cooperation with international partners. [Details…]

Mozart’s string quintet in g-minor KV 516 serves as the pivot point for a transdisciplinary research project among musicians and dancers. The composer and performer Karlheinz Essl dismantles the classic score with self-developed computer programs into molecular particles, which he expands to new sound scapes, serving as a choreographic grid for the performers. [Details…]

PRANTL – an artist family

A special exhibition at the Landesgalerie Burgenland with works by Karl Prantl, Uta Peyrer-Prantl, Katharina Prantl and videos by TAW – Sebastian Prantl & Cecilia Li: presenting „Prélude WALK IN“, a homage to Claude Debussy – recorded at the Kuandu Arts Festival/Taipei, Taiwan in 2013. [Details…]

RIVER memory pieces

“RIVER memory pieces“, links international artists and their creativity in the fields of dance performance, music and visual installation art. A Real-Time-Composition scheme follows the approach of a transdisciplinary encounter in front of a curious audiance and functions as an inclusive creative space, where upon various artistic and scientific perspectives emerge. [Details…]

MOTION PHONOTOP – ich sitze nur grausam da…

Based on textual fragments from the latest prose volume by the distinguished Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker, TAW presents a performative encounter of speech, sound, light and movement. Friederike Mayröckers charismatic reading is juxtaposed and enriched by carefully chosen piano scores and gentle kinetic interventions and crossings. [Details…]

HERMES, APOLLO and the engineer

“Constellations of forces result in systems of puissance” – three-dimensional objects by Walter Kaitna become the starting point for a transdisciplinary encounter, combining installation, image, light, sound and figures of movement. The constructivistic art works by Walter Kaitna serve as a source of inspiration for the life creation of light, sound and movement. [Details…]

DYNAMIK! Kubismus – Futurismus – KINETISMUS

Sebastian Prantl opens the exhibition DYNAMIK! …KINETISMUS at the Lower Belvedere in Vienna with a choreographic movement parcours through the various themes of the exhibition. Accompanied by the video artist Raffael Frick, the opening performance is recorded live in order to be re-montaged in an installation for the exhibition. [Details…]

MOTION PHONOTOP Fusznoten …

„MOTION PHONOTOP“ – movement and sound, has been the main topic of research labs at TAW since the beginning of 2010. “Fusznoten …” stands for a culmination of the exemplary artistic enterprise. The title describes an exemplary interface of sound and movement fostering a complex dramaturgy within the unique architectural space of the former Jesuit Theatre of Vienna. [Details…]

DORFPLATZ neubau(en) 08

The “DORFPLATZ: neubau(en) 08“ project works within an urban grid: Bandgasse / Kandlgasse. The specific geography frames investigatory activities within an imaginary city scape. Five theatre companies of the 7th district of Vienna:“Neubau“, jointly celebrate time-relevant topics on life-connected theatre practice for the Vienna Festival 08. [Details…]

MELEA

Babylonian confusion of tongues? Enigma of time, born out of the spectre of the past? What does the wisdom of ancient times tell us nowadays? How do manuscripts thousands of years inform us? Humanism today – in a post-capitalistic, global world? “ME<le>A” discusses ‘communication’, from the intellectual to the absurd, from the metaphysical to the banal. [Details…]

MOMENT memento

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of TAW (1988/2008) „MOMENT memento“ celebrates exemplary art-based research within the field of choreography, thus concentrating on sustainable methods of teaching and community building. The artist couple Sebastian Prantl and Cecilia Li, together with young protagonists give insight to their working philosophy and creation. [Details…]

KAIRÓS in[ter]vention

Kairos links the medium dance, film and music, all of which react to composition and transformation – opening the opportunity for KAIRÓS in the sense of a Real-Time-Composition, of a gash in the flow of CHRONOS. The ancient Greek invented the dual terminology: Crisis and Kairos in order to bridge past into future, promoting a positive energy for progress. [Details…]

SPAZIO DIVERTIMENTO – in homage to W.A. Mozart’s 250ies jubilee

The music-dramaturgical concept of the artist couple Cecilia Li (pianist) and Sebastian Prantl (choreographer) links choral leitmotifs with theatrical plots for an exemplary venue. The configuration of the Vienna Boys’ choir is provoked and integrated into a spatial concept for the “Hohe Kasematten”, a reactivated underground ‘cave’ in the Palais Coburg building complex. [Details…]

ITINERARIO DIVERTIMENTO

Itinerario Divertimento is based on a unique matrix connecting exemplary music material and choreographic structuring with spatial art components within unique theatrical frameworks – both for the stage as well as for open architectural contexts (here, in the extraordinary venue of the former Jesuit Theatre of Vienna). [Details…]

FC 80 – homage to Friedrich Cerha

On occasion of the 80th birthday of the distinguished Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha, TAW investigates material from three distinct periods of the composer’s oeuvre in the context of the ancient gothic church ‘Minoritenkirche’ in Krems/Stein under the logo ‘Klangraum Krems’. [Details…]

ANCHIBASIE

Myth and logic are still unseparated.
Metaphysics swings on the periphery of poetry.
Pictures of language flow into the music of movement. [Details…]

CORPORA IN COELI HARMONIA styriarte residency

Dance as medial energy between spiritual guidance, distinguished Catholic rituals and the devoted audience. Since the turn of the millennium, new experiencing and enthusiastic growth informs an understanding of European church liturgy as a catharsis not only by the clerical staff but also by a larger young audience especially from the “Third World”. [Details…]

H + H – homage to J. Haydn and J.M. Hauer

Both composers being distinct initiators of extensive and formative music eras speak to us through their scores thus in choreographic, visual and textual structures. The mimesis through dance without sound and choreographic material as an ‘enter-exit’ dramaturgy expands, shrinks, swaps and drifts away, formulating a story-telling grid among versatile protagonists. [Details…]

SOUNDING BODIES – frontier collaborators

Sebastian Prantl and Lawrence Casserley are innovators in their chosen media. Each has explored collaboration between visual, kinetic and sonic media in which the two are in counterpoint rather than one being the slave of the other. Each, as explorer, as performer, as choreographer or composer, can draw upon many years of experience. [Details…]

LAND BODY SCAPE

Land Body Scape – the Dreaming of Bones takes up a universal topic life (and death) suggesting and discussing a journey into the “hollows” of human fantasy following the poetic imagery of the author W.B. Yeats. The abstract film language of Duncan Ward evokes a multitude of content with regard to space and art, providing timing and structure for the dancing protagonist Sebastian Prantl. [Details…]

CAGE…for the birds II

The project “Cage – for the birds II” – fosters a catharsis along exemplary space situation in the urban landscape of Vienna. Patterns of dance language, as a dichotomy towards inside and outside, open and closed, confined and widely open – define a geographic gridding and formulate the kinaesthetic and compositional material for a glass box created by VALIE EXPORT. [Details…]

RASTER – permutation

Deconstructing choreography within geometric and numeric codes follows the outlines of specific spatial frameworks as a fundamental working scheme for “Raster”. The matrix combines kinaesthetic, physiologic, soneric and ethnologic agendas and fosters a discourse beyond stage parameters. Eventually a choreographic narrative concludes the project series. [Details…]

EIKON – dream scapes

An anniversary to 100 years of dream analysis by Sigmund Freud. A dream juxtaposed by its image. The relationship between rational emotion and emotional mathematics: chrestomathy as useful learning. The theme is suspended in the air – to arrive at the pivot point in repetition of the so called arbitrary output (Flash Back). Spelling out and abstracting the sacred. [Details…]

ICONOSTASIS

When the hierarchic structure is abandoned, religion loses its significance combined to it. The art started to develop according to the individual artist’s likes and needs. Religion also changed, following the self-responsibility of the believers, to new forms of Christian belief. Today, the resulting distance opens up new access to religion. [Details…]

RAUMBÜHNE – homage to Friedrich Kiesler

“Raumbühne” invites protagonists (distinct characters) to decipher basic geometric patterns by their kinaesthetic instincts: the quadrature of the circle is the riddle. Personal behaviour codes emerge; choreographic gestures evolve, transforming the geometry. Communication creates content, stories… A conclusion is not to be stated! [Details…]

SIGNIFICANT-IN-BETWEENS 1997-2001

„Significant-In-Betweens“ features performances in unique settings, sometimes functioning as regenerative phases among production periods. Such study journeys foster ensemble connectivity and provoke new perspectives: ancient sights as Assos (Turkey), stone quarries as Larvik (Norway), Colorscape installation as in Great Britain are just a few settings among many. [Details…]

MEMORY SPACES

„Spaces of Memory“ triggers story telling – of unique spaces, time codes, characters and their relationships…“ A project that offers imaginary patterns in an exemplary time and space scheme (3 hour performance) within the newly opened Semperdepot, the former grand depot for the Vienna Opera stage sets. [Details…]

KRAFTFELD

“Constellations of forces result in systems of puissance and give rise to the mobile and static world. They form structures of utmost flexibility, and it seems as though the sensations of the effect of forces – of tension and relaxation, of equilibrium and disequilibrium – were such existential experiences, that they largely determine our thinking, feeling and perception“. [Details…]

HERMITAGE – a frame of body & mind

Real-Time-Composition at the exemplary location of the Fürstenhof/Museumsquartier is obsessive… Duration: 36 hours, processing 3 weeks within the Wiener Festwochen ‘93
…who comes into the space? …who provokes the plot? …who creates the drama? [Details…]

SOUNDING COLUMN

The geometric framework of the exemplary architecture of the Traisen Pavillon in St. Pölten/ Lower Austria in the middle of a nature reservoir proscribes a circular choreographic structure – concentric interweaving circles – reaching out beyond an axis-oriented proscenium stage principle. [Details…]

CAGE – for the birds I

In this case, names are important, because the project “For the Birds” dedicated to John Cage, the distinguished American composer is logo and location: ‘Cage’ is not only a name, but also suggestive of the exemplary architectural structure of the Traisen Pavilion in St. Pölten, Lower Austria. [Details…]

SIGNUM ‘91

Molto Allegro, Andante, Menuetto Allegro, Allegro Assai… Before, among and after the movements of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in g minor, show-like scenes escalate in banal climaxes that provide a sharp contrast to the many-layered themes of Mozart’s music. [Details…]

24 PRELUDES – homage to Frederic Chopin

Artistic energy generated by the virtuous interaction of two disciplines (music and dancing) electrifies the audience. Subjective findings of biographical material about the dramatic life of F. Chopin’s provides new insight to the compositional oeuvre at large. The virtuous interpretation of the Preludes by Cecilia Li is anchorage to the plot. Four dancing characters portrait the composer. [Details…]

BOOGIE WOOGIE – homage to Piet Mondrian

„There is an old and a new consciousness of time. The old one has to do with the individual. The new one has to do with the universal.
The struggle of the individual against the universal manifests itself in world wars as well as in contemporary art.“ (Piet Mondrian) [Details…]

SOUND SPACES

Choreographic exercises in- and outside the bodily boundaries. Resonating bodies transform space… Dancing bodies talk to us… of the overcoming of gravity, of a melody emerging, of the falling of angels…
„Continuing to walk means walking far, walking far means coming back.” (Laotse) [Details…]

LETTER TO OPHELIA

Hamlet is set in various locations of the future. A virus has erased large parts of the population. People are isolated from each other, firstly to prevent the spreading of the fatal virus – secondly to preclude the eruption of uncontrolled emotions that would inevitably lead to violence. [Details…]

MOUVEMENTS

“Mouvements” as abstract choreographies, created to compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Symphony Nr. 40 g- minor, K 550) and Friedrich Cerha (Mouvements & Fasce) are structured and distilled from a casual movement canon such as running, falling, rolling, walking and sitting. Further condensation manifest itself by means of “harmonious unisoni” and “contact improvisation”. [Details…]

LU – hommage à Erik Satie

The Chinese term ‘lu’ means ‘the path’’. Dance, through fleetness of hand and foot, interlacing – forming homogenous togetherness and side-by-side existence, embedded in the symbolism of rocks. Erik Saties meditative compositions provides a framework for the choreographic structure and support a soft narrative danced on pictographic images of chinese caligraphic codes for „lu“. [Details…]

EARTHRISE

„A 29 year old stewardess fell to her death tonight, when she was swept through an emergency door that suddenly sprang open. The body was found three hours after the accident“. The rise of the earth as seen from the moon is a symbol for man’s relationship to earth, his ability to distance himself from the planet he is evitably bound to. [Details…]

GAIA

„GAIA“ – a choreography for double solo and female choir, was created as the very first dance theatre production for WUK – Werkstätten und Kulturhaus in Vienna, an occupied building complex, which eventually developped into a prominant Center for Arts, Culture & NGO initiatives. Theme and content was particularly chosen as a logo and contribution to the overall roof at WUK. [Details…]

NIEMANDSLAND

„Niemandsland“ a multimedia performance piece, combines narratives in regard to themes of occupation, oppression and freedom. A multi-cultural ensemble embarks on a journey to investigate the inner persona as the haunted other – in search for insight and understanding. Film and text (Peter Nabokov, Elaine Scarry, Morton Schatzmann, Tzvetan Todorov …) support the plot. [Details…]

PIERRE RIVIERE

A multimedia performance piece for MAK, Vienna. Protagonists of various background cooperate along the theme of the life of „Pierre Riviere“, one of the most prominent criminal cases to be documented in France of the 19th century. The narrative follows an abstract showcase, combining exemplary ligthing and film language with contemporary movement vocabulary. [Details…]

40 x 18 ZEITRAUMSPIEL in Weiss

A site-specific performance happening in a former swimming pool situated at a culture centre, outside of Vienna (Perchtoldsdorf). Performers from various backgrounds meet under the premise of a 12-hour performence engagement, „imprisoned“ in a retangular white space (40 x 18 m). The audience enjoys a living theatre happening, including movement, speech, music, painting, building, eating and clean up. [Details…]