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.
Christian faith tends towards manifestation in sensually perceptible ways. Theatre, music and dance often illustrate the fact that human life is rooted in spiritual dimensions.
On this basis, the project Iconostasis became the manifestation of an encounter, supported by the respect for each other and the joy of experiencing one another.
„Boogie Woogie – homage to Piet Mondrian” staged by TAW was my first encounter with the work of Sebastian Prantl and Cecilia Li. In the ensuing years, I kept following their work with my ears and eyes. It was a pleasing experience to participate from the background, from outside, in the events that were effected by motion and sound in time and space. I was very impressed with the way dance artists were fostered to create spaces that communicated with the existing architectural setting and of the music that in turn provided the space for the dance. Moreover, that finally gave me an idea that I spoke about to Sebastian Prantl. I wondered whether the Vienna church of the Jesuits might not be an appropriate setting for the ensemble’s performances; after all, they had given performances in very unambiguous settings before.“
(Gustav Schörghofer SJ, art critic and theologian, member of the Jesuit Order, principal of the Jesuit Church in Vienna)
Iconostasis I – TAW Studio production, May 1999
Concept/Choreography: Sebastian Prantl
Music Concept/Piano: Cecilia Li
Musicians: Igor Pomykalo (lira da braccio, violin)
Dancing Protagonists: István Horváth, Michikazu Matsune, Michaela Pein, Sebastian Prantl, Ingrid Reisetbauer
Iconostasis II – Vienna University Church, September/October 1999
Space/Choreography: Sebastian Prantl
Music Concept/Piano: Cecilia Li
Musicians: Ernst Kovacic (violin), Igor Pomykalo (lira da braccio, violin), Iwakichi Yamashita (Japanese flute, percussion)
Dancing Protagonists: István Horváth, Michikazu Matsune, Michaela Pein, Sebastian Prantl, Ingrid Reisetbauer, Alessandro Sabatini
Action Painting: Lore Heuermann
Costumes: Susanne Schintler
Light: Martin Walitza
Iconostasis IIa – for Jeunesse Austria, Colourscape Music Festival, Rathausplatz, Vienna, October 1999
Iconostasis IIb – for Feldkircher Tanzherbst, Feldkirch, November 1999
Iconostasis III – for Plus/Minus “Variations on no motif by Stockhausen”, A cooperation of TAW and Capella con Durezza; Minoritenkirche Krems, June 2000
Iconostasis IV – “Wide Heaven – New Earth”, St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Wien, June 2000
Concept/Choreography: Sebastian Prantl
Dancers: Gro Benedikte Eknes, Jozef Frucek, Andrea Jankovská, Othello Johns, Michikazu Matsune, Tomoko Nishino, Hana Pauknerová, Michaela Pein, Sebastian Prantl, Paul Wenninger
Musicians: Capella con Durezza under Renald Deppe
Costumes: Susanne Schintler
Light: Martin Walitza