[{"id":"impressions-of-pw-live-with-secret-guests","postPreview":"\n
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Impressions of PW-Live: Secret Guests<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Moments from the concert by Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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Impressions of PW-Live: Secret Guests<\/h2>\n \n

Moments from the concert by Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Jun 10, 2025 <\/p>

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Photo by Moritz Franz Zangl<\/div><\/div>

June 4, 2025, marked the beginning of our new live series<\/a>, featuring\u00a0Pablo Altar<\/a>\u00a0on the church organ and\u00a0Ange Halliwell<\/a>\u00a0on the harp, as they presented their latest collaborative project, Secret Guests, for the first time. In the Alte Salvatorkapelle, located in Vienna\u2019s 1st district, they wove sacred resonance with delicate strings, crafting intimate sonic rituals that echoed with both ancient depth and otherworldly grace.<\/p><\/div>

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Funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Impressions of PW-Live: Secret Guests<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Moments from the concert by Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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Soa Ratsifandrihana: On Grooves, Echoes and Staying Close<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Between joy, doubt, and fantasy, Soa Ratsifandrihana maps a choreography of contradictions with friendship as a method.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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Soa Ratsifandrihana: On Grooves, Echoes and Staying Close<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Between joy, doubt, and fantasy, Soa Ratsifandrihana maps a choreography of contradictions with friendship as a method.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n Soa Ratsifandrihana: g r o o v e. Photos by Lara Gasparotto <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Soa Ratsifandrihana: Fampitaha, fampita, fampit\u00e0na. <\/em>Photos by Harilay Rabenjamina <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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Soa Ratsifandrihana: On Grooves, Echoes and Staying Close<\/h2>\n \n

Between joy, doubt, and fantasy, Soa Ratsifandrihana maps a choreography of contradictions with friendship as a method.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Jun 4, 2025 <\/p>

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Photo by Albane Durand-Viel<\/div><\/div>

When dancer and choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana<\/a> walked into a Brussels media library in 2020, she was looking for CDs. What she found was the beginning of a long conversation, one that would move through dance, diaspora, memory, and mutual support with curator maria dogahe. Together, they reflect on the making of the project g r oo v e<\/em> (2021), the shift toward into the group performance Fampitaha, Fampita, Fampit\u00e0na <\/em>(2024), and the contradictions of creating within institutional frames.\u00a0What emerges between poetic and playful dances, oral history and melodic stories of diasporic lives is a practice held together by attention\u2013to music, to others, to what remains unsaid. Soa Ratsifandrihana proposes choreographies as both offering and refusal, a way of staying in relation, even as everything moves.<\/p><\/div>

Let\u2019s start this conversation with our first encounter.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

The first time I met you was at Pointculture in Brussels in 2020. You were working there. I came in, and I was like, \"Oh, hi, I have a project, and I want to borrow some CDs and DVDs.\"<\/p><\/div>

It was basically the beginning of my professional life. I had just started working at this multimedia library, and our first connection was us lending you loads of CDs because your first solo was about your relationship with dance and all the musical genres that had impacted you as an artist. We were even coming to record your rehearsals. It's amusing to consider everything that has unfolded since then, since we met around your project of g r oo v e<\/em>, five years ago. What pushed you to make this piece, and how do you feel about it now?<\/p><\/div>\n

At the time, I was working as a dancer for Rosas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, time felt loose; everything was uncertain, and I wasn't working much. I finally had time to reflect on what really mattered to me. I could ask myself: Why do I dance? What do I want to put in my body? What do I want to highlight? Becoming a maker wasn't the goal, but it ended up being the detour I needed. It was about celebrating the movements I'd picked up at the never-ending parties of the Malagasy diaspora in Toulouse, where I grew up, or saluting the energy of a signature spin from Pepito, a popping dancer. All those people I've met along the way helped shape the dancer I've become. And g r oo v e<\/em> is a way to honour them. It's a collage of dances and images. They pass through, shift, and dissolve repeatedly, creating a back-and-forth movement throughout the piece. At the time, I thought: What if the dramaturgy itself, as a frame, was groovy? Why not?<\/p><\/div>

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Photo by Albane Durand-Viel<\/div><\/div>

And just as we are talking about your Rosas days, a past version of you is lurking in the background; a poster of you dancing Fase<\/em> hung in your parents' living room. I saw this poster in so many homes. Sometimes, I visit people's houses for small gatherings, and I spot this poster and you on their walls. I love that you're always with us in that way.<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, at some point, I had to detach myself from these images and being a dancer for Rosas, doing my own work was crucial for me; it felt like my post-Disney rebellion somehow. More seriously, I was going on stage with only the academically legitimated, Western classical, and contemporary lineage part of my body. But I needed to show up with my full body, one that also carries my emo-agitated-cyborg-wannabe-flex-and-saucy-five-six-seven-eight movements. With g r oo v e<\/em>, I needed to recall a certain pleasurable, frugal, and deep vibration I had lost by reconnecting with rhythms I love. No melodies, just beats and silences. Working with musicians Sylvain Darrifourcq and Alban Murenzi filled the space with unexpected textures. Speakers arranged in quadraphonic surround around the stage. Letting sound shape my movement, or my movement shape the sound, is my passion, like an active meditation.
However, time has passed since 2021, and I've changed; I've definitely entered adulthood, and this passion no longer finds its place as easily. That's why each time I dance g r oo v e<\/em> it feels like a blessing. I can be full of doubt. But always, there is joy.<\/p><\/div>

When I was interviewed for the job I now have at Kaaitheater, g r oo v e<\/em> was the first proposal of my fictitious program. I feel like I knew virtually nothing back then, and certainly not how to program for a big institution. Yet, just like that, fiction became a reality: now you're a resident artist at Kaai, and I'm a programmer there. So, this piece is also a testament to how we've grown together. I have a strong attachment to it, and I'm glad you're still touring it. It's mobilised a lot of beautiful memories, and the references that you conjured are still so relevant.
The journey that you went through as a human is also very much reflected in the work. Of course, you depart with g r oo v e<\/em> as your first creation, which is very honestly anchored in your references and all about dance languages. Namely: the Afindrafindrao and Madison from Madagascar, popping. g r oo v e<\/em> was also a solo, and then you made Fampitaha, Fampita, Fampit\u00e0na<\/em>, a group piece that delves deeper into the context in which these dances emerged.<\/p><\/div>\n

I view this group piece as a continuation of my solo, an even deeper dive into my desire to understand and give space to the languages tied to my diasporic situation, which has been affected by the erasure of culture and dances through colonisation, being a second generation of immigration in France. This quartet, shared with my partners in crime, Audrey Merilus, Stanley Ollivier, and musician Jo\u00ebl Rabesolo, becomes a space where we dance, play, and sing, winking at our ancestors.<\/p><\/div>

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Soa Ratsifandrihana: g r o o v e. Photos by Lara Gasparotto<\/div><\/div>

How did it feel for you to move on to a more collective process of creation?<\/p><\/div>\n

Your vision of collectivity has influenced mine. I remember you telling me that the idea of the self-made artist is fake; everything we create emerges from our relation to the collective. Even though g r oo v e<\/em> was a solo piece, it involved so many people: the musicians, production, costume, light designers, and you as well, as a curator who trusted me. So, what's most difficult is how much you need to be able to listen to others but also to yourself. For me, creation often starts with a craving; then, you share a meal. And by the end, things inevitably shift. How boring is it to come to the studio knowing exactly what you're going to do? I imagine it's similar for you as a programmer: constantly listening, resonating, and composing with what's around you.<\/p><\/div>

It's hard work sometimes to create collectively, but it's a decision we need to keep committing to. Because there is so much to get from this. A relationship is something special\u2013through interaction, some things appear you didn't suspect existed, surpassing your perceptions and expectations.<\/p><\/div>\n

I am actually experiencing something similar now with the singer Bonnie Banane. We are working on a performance for Avignon this summer named Quelle aurore<\/em>. Lately, I've been feeling numb, scrolling endlessly, caught in horror and brain rot content. I shared that with her, and she connected to it, too. The piece exists in that space: between numbness, absurdity, and (dis)empowerment. It's about how we feel right now and the contradictions that come with it.<\/p><\/div>

Disempowerment is a very present feeling in many people's hearts today. With the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the horrors we witness in Congo, and the grip colonial powers still have on our lives; it's very hard to make sense of what you do, to feel at ease and anchored in reality.<\/p><\/div>\n

As performers and artists, we love being on stage. But how do we show up there when so much is happening around us? It feels unbearable. Being on stage inevitably places us at the centre, casting us as the hero of the moment and drawing the spotlight on ourselves. But the real heroes are elsewhere: they are the ones who resist and fight colonial oppression every day, far from our stages.
With that awareness comes fear\u2014the fear of absorbing those struggles into our work, of turning them into metaphors within a bourgeois theatre context. Unfortunately, there is a widespread belief that simply representing political issues on stage is already doing the work and that our presence in these spaces signals engagement. But that's an illusion. Institutional and audience engagement often ends with watching, as if witnessing alone counted as political participation. Yet much more is required. Especially in these privileged spaces, we carry the responsibility to go far beyond representation.<\/p><\/div>

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Soa Ratsifandrihana: Fampitaha, fampita, fampit\u00e0na. <\/em>Photos by Harilay Rabenjamina<\/div><\/div>

It's also odd to choose these very institutional ways of working when we are so animated and interested in these questions of building and putting energy into our communities.<\/p><\/div>\n

I carry that question daily, as I know many of us do. I still have no answers; I live with my contradictions within this field and, every day, try to pull courage from fear. I wonder, if we step out of this frame, what frame do we enter next? Can we ever really escape it?
I have had moments where I felt more in alignment, for instance, when performing outside the black box for an event organised by the French collective Histoires Cr\u00e9pues (\"Nappy History\"), which is dedicated to sharing knowledge and making colonial history more accessible to Afrodescent youth. Performing in that context felt meaningful, as their content inspired some scenes of the show. For instance, I wanted to choreograph the cultural erasure that occurred in Madagascar, orchestrated by France. At first, we rigorously follow the patterns of the French gardens, then get caught in a Pacman\/Snake-like grid, and as we close the piece, we run, wiggle and twirl freely like kids in the schoolyard.\u00a0
What I love about choreography is imagining the displacement of bodies in space and time to create an energy arc that generates a feeling I hope will reach the audience. We thus put a lot of thought into the together with Lily Brieu Nguyen, the dramaturg of the piece. As in g r oo v e<\/em>, it is a mash-up of dances and music. Fela Kuti, for instance, is a significant inspiration, particularly with his album Sorrow, Tears and Blood<\/em>, and his song \"Colonial Mentality.\" He questions the value we place on our own cultures, which we sometimes underappreciate. Performing this piece in front of an audience that shares the questions raised in Histoires Cr\u00e9pues had a profound impact on me. Having the opportunity to thank them for their enormous work gave me hope and meaning in what I do.<\/p><\/div>

Indeed, we can always find zones of alignment. The question of operating entirely outside institutional dynamics is somehow a false one because there is no position outside of power. Whatever we choose, our individual actions have limited impact, creating this sense of numbness. That's why there's an urgent need to come together, to build and exchange in close proximity, which resonates with the experience you shared here. I've spoken with older activists and art workers about feeling disempowered, putting everything into the work and still questioning its impact. What they shared with me was simple but grounding: focus on what's directly around you. How are you affecting your immediate community and the people you live and work with? Even when it's hard and the global context is violent, we have to keep finding the strength to reconnect and act together.<\/p><\/div>\n

You do what you can and give what you can when you can. Ultimately, it's our connections and conversations that keep communities alive through both the good and the bad. One person's impact can ripple outward, whatever the scale. Sometimes, what we do behind the scenes has more weight than what's seen on stage, and it doesn't require recognition, which feels right. It takes endurance, I believe.<\/p><\/div>

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Photo by Albane Durand-Viel<\/div><\/div>

I entered this field caring about the relationships we build, the care we have for one another, the laughter, and the friendships. And I thought then that this was an unprofessional way of working somehow. But the more I advance, the more I realise how significant it is for me and my work ethic.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, it's too crucial for me not to uproot myself from what's essential: the relationships I share with my peers, the meals we cook and eat together\u2013that\u2019s what keeps me grounded. These aren't just trivial and personal experiences; they shape the way I work and create. In those moments, my body becomes a space that holds movement, stories, and the simple beauty of daily life.<\/p><\/div>

Soa Ratsifandrihana is a dancer and choreographer. After studying at the Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Soa worked with James Thierr\u00e9e, Salia Sanou and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. For the period 2023-2025, Soa is artist-in-residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels. Her recent group piece Fampitaha, fampita, fampit\u00e0na <\/em>premiered <\/em>at <\/em>Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2024. Her first solo, g r oo v e <\/em>has been performed over forty times and continues to tour Europe. Don't miss it at HAU - Hebbel Theater am Ufer<\/a> on June 4 + 5.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Maria Metsalu: The Fleshy Zone Between the Collective and the Individual<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

In her practice, the tendons of corporeal exposure are stretched into narratives in the making: The You<\/em> as an encounter, the Me<\/em> as rough substance and the dancing Us <\/em>converge, enlivening physical incidents of co-presence.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Giulia Ottavia Frattini<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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CRAZE #12: Marga Alfeir\u00e3o<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

\"CRAZE: Questionnaire for new Choreography\" showcases emerging choreographers and investigates the artistic practices of contemporary dance.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Jette B\u00fcchsensch\u00fctz<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tBerlin\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n"},{"id":"courtesy-sound-space-syntax","postPreview":"\n
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\n Against Interpretation Club x Schinkel Pavillon. <\/em>Photo by Courtesy <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Courtesy: Sound, Space, Syntax<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

The DJ, artist and curator is talking about sound in visual terms, thinking of literature as architecture, and curating events like she's building mixtapes.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Sarah Johanna Theurer<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n","gallery":"
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Clara Borrelli <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Photo by Clara Borrelli <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Against Interpretation Club x Schinkel Pavillon. <\/em>Photo by Courtesy <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Clara Borrelli <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

<\/p><\/div><\/div>","galleryGallery":"

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\n by<\/span> \n Sarah Johanna Theurer<\/span> <\/div>\n
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\n Berlin <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n \n

Courtesy: Sound, Space, Syntax<\/h2>\n \n

The DJ, artist and curator is talking about sound in visual terms, thinking of literature as architecture, and curating events like she's building mixtapes.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n

May 26, 2025 <\/p>

<\/div>
Photo by Clara Borrelli<\/div><\/div>

Courtesy's<\/a> diverse practice grew from music production and assemblage into creating spaces for ambiguous forms, hybrid performances, and cross-scene conversations. With Sarah Johanna Theurer she talks through style, screenprinting, her relationship to Susan Sontag\u2014and her new event series Against Interpretation Club<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>

I first encountered your work in the Berlin club music scene. Do you have a background in visual arts as well or when did these worlds start to collide for you?<\/p><\/div>\n

Yeah, I studied at a conservatory and was deeply immersed in music\u2014no visual arts at all until maybe five years ago. The pivot started with a project I launched in 2018, which began as a record label and morphed into what's now Against Interpretation Club<\/em>. It came from a contrarian position\u2014I was bored of the dominant visual language around dance music, which tends to orbit the 90s. I wanted to expand the visual side of the label and started collaborating with artists for event flyers and cover art. That's what pulled me into the art context.<\/p><\/div>

So, your music label shifted into a curatorial practice? But your strategy or style is quite unique, it's not traditional curating, what does that entail?<\/p><\/div>\n

Exactly. Like many independent labels, I was commissioning work, guiding artists and\u2026 I felt it blurred into an art practice. Over time, I stopped outsourcing parts like photography or graphic design. I learned to do it myself. The shift became explicit when I started releasing my own music. The line between directing others and producing my own work kind of dissolved.<\/p><\/div>

And does this artistic, hands-on approach inform your way of conceiving events today?<\/p><\/div>\n

Totally. Learning the technical side of things feeds my ideas. Like, for example, I spent the last year learning screen printing, and I have ended up focusing on and repeating a gesture pulled from that. My friend Samuel Haitz recently said \"repetition of a gesture becomes the style\", and it stuck with me. It's not about only executing a preconceived concept, though I would always have one; the making is where the concept also evolves or at least is fully formed. At the moment, a friend is helping me prepare to build a dark room in my studio so I can develop my film on the spot, it is also a bit of a learning curve.<\/p><\/div>

When you started handling the graphic design and screen printing yourself, did you look to any particular album covers or art movements for inspiration? Are there visual markers or references that guide your aesthetic choices?<\/p><\/div>\n

Warhol is obviously a reference for me, in terms of the dotted screen print, and in my videos, Jake Smith and Derek Jarman are also relevant there. I'm not really influenced by graphic design or music album artworks, but I do lift images from them, or images I took of my own CD collection, dance records or of my friend's vinyls may appear in my work. My last album cover was a screen-printed collage of video stills and stars from a CD cover with Scooter I bought on tour.<\/p><\/div>

I realise many of your collaborators have a strong relationship with text. What role does literature, or maybe also theory, play in your practice?<\/p><\/div>\n

It's actually central. The artists I gravitate towards\u2014 like Samuel, Olga Hohmann, Sofia Defino Leiby and others\u2014all have some sort of writing practice, or their work is shaped by reading. That's what connects us. I think through literature constantly, and it informs how I build events or think about performances. That's also why I called the project Against Interpretation Club<\/em>\u2014it's a nod to Susan Sontag, though I am currently reading and enjoying Juliane Rebentisch's critique of Sontag in Camp Materialism<\/em>. Maybe my relationship to Sontag is similar to her relationship to Camp with \"a deep sympathy modified by revulsion.\" The name Against Interpretation Club<\/em> is more about resisting fixed meaning.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Clara Borrelli<\/div><\/div>

How does that carry over into your live events?<\/p><\/div>\n

Especially in DJing, the audience is co-authoring the vibe. With my own performances\u2014like the choral work at Schinkel Pavillon\u2014I set things up and then step back. The singers perform, and I document with my camera, some of the photos end up in the screenprints. The piece unfolds live, with the audience present in the room. The documentation might circulate afterward, but the core of it is what happens in that moment. And when it's amplified only by microphones, the room really matters. If someone coughs or talks or shuffles around, it's in the piece. To me, it's not about controlling that, it's about acknowledging it.<\/p><\/div>

The documentation becomes part of the work itself?<\/p><\/div>\n

Yeah, but it\u2019s never the whole thing. I used to teach a seminar on performance history, music and contemporary art at the conservatory in Copenhagen and I realised that for traditional and a lot of contemporary performance art getting attention right now, the documentation or \"picture\" is too often getting more attention than than the experience\u2014it's the thing that circulates, gets archived, enters the discourse. But for me, the live aspect; the immediacy; the fragility is the key. I'm interested in how the audience shapes the work just by being there. Like in a club, you're often not even allowed to take pictures.<\/p><\/div>

Against Interpretation Club started at OHM in Berlin, then you recently organised a night at Schinkel Pavillon, and now you are planning to tour the project?<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, carefully. I want to curate each edition with local artists. It's not about exporting a Berlin scene, but meeting and working with communities elsewhere. So it takes time.<\/p><\/div>

How do you choose institutions that are interesting for you to work with? And then how do you approach them? Like, do you send them a pitch email through your booking agent and do you have your concept and budget lined out before or do you work more collaboratively, delivering the format and filling it in conversation with the hosting institution?<\/p><\/div>\n

It varies. Some places invite me directly, like Schinkel Pavillon. With the art institutions, the curation is always a collaboration with the institution, taking that from my concept, which makes sense in the framework that they are working within, so there has to be a shared interest between the institution and me. The venues that are more music-orientated are mostly approached by my DJ agent Lisa since she works with them regularly, and I provide a proposal. Particularly with club spaces, their architecture shapes what's possible in terms of performance and exhibition. Obviously, the final event is determined by availability and budget and everything that's kind of specific to the date and institution, so it's hard to say which order everything comes together in.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Against Interpretation Club x Schinkel Pavillon. <\/em>Photo by Courtesy<\/div><\/div>

What could art institutions learn from club spaces? <\/p><\/div>\n

Clubs sell tickets. That's something art spaces can learn\u2014especially with funding cuts looming. I think the club model has lessons about commercial sustainability.<\/p><\/div>

I'm definitely going to sign up for that lesson! Across Europe, people are not used to paying for exhibition visits in the same way they are willing to pay for club nights. So most art institutions wouldn't even cover their rent through ticket sales alone\u2026I'm also aware that music booking operates quite differently from curating exhibitions\u2014the kinds of conversations you have, and with whom, are very different. But turning the question around: is there anything the music industry could learn from the art world?<\/p><\/div>\n

My main issue is the lack of a semiotic equivalent language for music. I read Barthes or Buchloh, and there is a gap\u2013especially in music criticism\u2013where instead of creating meaningful dialogue or critique about a work, it\u2019s often reduced to marketing and anecdotal narratives, or just straight up misinterpretations. For example, I remember when Mike Kelley passed, I was struck by a reaction published in The Wire <\/em>which\u2014instead of honoring him, the editor reduced his work to illegitimate and overrated because he saw it as only consisting of insider jokes. This reflects a larger issue: a reluctance to engage with art that might not be immediately understandable. I guess it's hard to have a serious relationship with contemporary art if you're uncomfortable with not being the smartest person in the room.<\/p><\/div>

I agree, critique is too often reduced to marketing or anecdotal storytelling. I'm curious\u2014how do you envision a kind of structured syntax or literary scaffolding working within music?<\/p><\/div>\n

I think a lot about Stephen Prina, how he builds bodies of work and songs around the structure of a text, for example, in using Julie Ault's book on F\u00e9liz Gonz\u00e1lez-Torrez to write a song for his exhibition The Second Sentence of Everything I Read Is You: Mourning Sex<\/em> \u2013 or\u00a0 R.H. Quaytman, for whom each exhibition represents a chapter, like literature. The same kind of scaffolding that helps you read a painting, or a novel\u2014that doesn't quite exist for the work I do in music.<\/p><\/div>

If it doesn't exist yet, would perhaps your videos (and I wouldn't even call them music videos necessarily) support or even demand this kind of critical reading practice? In Gretel Girl<\/em>, for example, you added a subtitle line that seems to not add up with the flow of images and the drive of the music. Can you share some background on this kaleidoscopic layering?<\/p><\/div>\n

I do call them music videos, or videos with music. I'm leaning into that, but I\u2019m not going to put any of them on YouTube anymore. I need more control over the context it's being shown in and the quality of the sound and projection. They're definitely artworks, and not marketing tools as the utility of music videos normally is. In terms of the subtitles added to Gretel Girl<\/a>, the song lyrics are written by Sofia Defino Leiby and the subtitles are a transcript of a conversation about Virginia Woolf, led by DJ TRANSmisia, who was also starring in the video. TRANSmisia will also appear in my new video work.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Clara Borrelli<\/div><\/div>

Are you suggesting Woolf's stream-of-consciousness could be the narrative form of Sontag's Against Interpretation polemics? And you are, following their lineage, building this incredibly complex thing to call for immediate sensory experience over structured analysis? If I remember Sontag correctly, she wrote in response to conceptual art at the end of the 60ies, sort of saying we should allow the art to speak for itself and embrace its formal qualities (textures, sounds etc.) rather than dissecting it. But actually, your compositions lend themselves to both kinds of experience. You make so many references to (music) history, it's actually hard not to start interpreting.<\/p><\/div>\n

It's never about genre alone. I'm bringing formats and fields in dialogue, but I'm weaving sideways, so to speak. With Sontag, I'd argue against linear or conventional ways of interpretation and for a more fluid, non-reductive approach to experiencing art. I am making intuitive, cross-referential connections between sound, image, text, and performance. I think my music, like my exhibitions, DJ sets or events, is always in conversation with other works. That's where the meaning comes from.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n Photo by Fran Gomez de Villaboa. Styling by Luca Wowczyna. Make-up by Elle McMahon. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n Photo by Fran Gomez de Villaboa. Styling by Luca Wowczyna. Make-up by Elle McMahon. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Evita Manji: Free Will Might be an Illusion<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

In their debut album \"Spandrel?\" the Athens-born artist copes with all the pressing issues of our time.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Juule Kay<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz. H&M by Hanna Stantejsky <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz. H&M by Hanna Stantejsky <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz. H&M by Hanna Stantejsky <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Paul Ebhart: Das Sch\u00f6ne am Sound<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

\u00dcber Auflegen und Plattensammeln ger\u00e4t der Autodidakt Paul Ebhart immer tiefer in die Welt von Musik- und Soundproduktionen. Als K\u00fcnstler besch\u00e4ftigt er sich mittlerweile kritisch mit Paradigmen der Klangerzeugung.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Simon Popp<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tmusic\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n"},{"id":"pw-live-secret-guests","postPreview":"\n
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\n \"\" \n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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PW-Live: Secret Guests<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

On June 4, PW-Magazine invites to a concert evening with the new collaborative project by Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Editorial Team<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tmusic\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n","gallery":"
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PW-Live: Secret Guests<\/h2>\n \n

On June 4, PW-Magazine invites to a concert evening with the new collaborative project by Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n

May 21, 2025 <\/p>

<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>

Secret Guests is a duo featuring Pablo Altar<\/a> on church organ and Ange Halliwell<\/a> on harp. Blending sacred resonance with delicate strings, they create intimate sonic rituals that feel both ancient and otherworldly. Their name evokes the subtle manifestation of unseen presences\u2014silent guests invited through sound.<\/p><\/div>

June 4
8PM
Altkatholische Salvatorkapelle \/ Wipplingerstr. 6, Vienna, AT-1010
Free admission<\/strong><\/p><\/div>

This marks the launch of a new series of events organized by PW-Magazine, assembling collaborators, adored artists, familiar and new faces to share their work, modes of thinking, and company with our followers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Pablo Altar is a French composer and musician whose work centers on piano and organ. His music explores emotional depth through minimalist and contemplative compositions. In addition to his solo work, he creates scores for films and dance performances. He recently unveiled a new project titled Far Out<\/em> on his own platform, Mfaw.<\/p>

Ange Halliwell began playing the harp at the age of 12. From the lush countryside of southwest France, he composes music that combines hypnotic arpeggios, layered soundscapes, and voices that are sung, spoken, or screamed. His creations are deeply connected to nature, drawing from a wide range of influences: traditional music, lyricism, and horror. <\/p>

Funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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PW-Playlist: Summer Picks<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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\n \"\" \n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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PW-Playlist: Curated by Unsafe+Sounds<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\tmusic\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspecials\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n"},{"id":"anna-franziska-jager-nathan-ooms-bartlebabe","postPreview":"\n
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\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Bartlebabe (Four Fragments and One Letter)<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

In their thrid collaboration Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger and Nathan Ooms let a mass of online content collide with the analog reality of the theatre.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger & Nathan Ooms<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tperformance\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttexts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tBrussels\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n","gallery":"
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

<\/p><\/div><\/div>","galleryGallery":"

<\/div>","postContent":"\n\n
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\n by<\/span> \n Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger & Nathan Ooms<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n

\n performance <\/p>\n

\n texts <\/p>\n

\n Brussels <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n \n

Bartlebabe (Four Fragments and One Letter)<\/h2>\n \n

In their thrid collaboration Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger and Nathan Ooms let a mass of online content collide with the analog reality of the theatre.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n

May 15, 2025 <\/p>

<\/div>
Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote<\/div><\/div>

A big white desk stands in the left corner of the stage, surrounded by several cardboard boxes in different sizes, shapes and colours. One of the boxes reads: the outside is inside everything we make. Enters Bartlebabe. She\u2019s wearing a sort of bullet proof cushion over a little black dress over a large white shirt.
Accompanying the print publication of performance texts by Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger<\/a> and Nathan Ooms<\/a>, <\/em>the following are excerpts from their piece \"Bartlebabe\", dedicated to the famous clerk Bartleby, the literary brainchild of Herman Melville, whose standard answer \"I would prefer not to\" is neither an affirmation nor an absolute rejection. They reinterpret this attitude in times of overstimulation, digital omni-presence and hyper mediation.<\/p><\/div>

Excerpt I<\/p><\/div>

Hi! Today I\u2019m gonna show you how to build your dream car in five minutes. I\u2019m so excited, I love doing things like this. Just do it yourself. Just do it. It\u2019s all about speed and drive. So, let\u2019s waste no more time, we\u2019re going to do this as quick as we can. See you at the end.<\/p>

Oh shit, wow! Let\u2019s start by getting the tires in. On all sides. one two three four five. Five tires. Amazing! Let\u2019s work from front to back. So, I\u2019m looking for an engine. Here we have a perfect turbo combustion engine. Let\u2019s get that going. Don\u2019t forget the battery. A standard lead-acid battery. For the car! Here goes the gas tank, for the gas! You can basically use anything you find. No need to be specific. Anything goes. Let\u2019s install the windows, on all sides. A big massive windshield. And mirrors. A lot of mirrors: rear-view, side-view, front-view, down-view mirrors. Here are some ultra-tangible windshield wipers. What if it starts raining? Be prepared for everything! Looks like we forgot the seats. No problem for us. Only the front will do. Don\u2019t forget the headsets though, for the headrest. Here are some beautiful seatbelts. Fantastic. It\u2019s all about speed and drive! One day, the need for space makes itself felt. It comes to us without warning. And never goes away. The irresistible wish for space of our own. A mobile space which can take us anywhere. A space where everything is at hand and nothing is lacking. Here, space is already inside you. Here, you\u2019ve never been so firmly on the ground as you are in space. Let\u2019s get straight to the dashboard! Here comes the steering-wheel. Let\u2019s add a nice little horn. Don\u2019t forget the airbag! Very important. Keep it safe! It looks a bit loose, but just wait till it all comes together. Here come the pedals, gas and brake, gas and brake. Fantastic. I\u2019m so excited I\u2019m gonna explode. Your dream car definitely needs an emergency brake pedal. Wow, perfect. Let\u2019s add a nice little radio. Get the right vibe going. A beverage holder, like I said, anything goes! I\u2019m so excited I\u2019m gonna explode! Ventilation here. Keep it cool. What we still need are some door handles. Door handles, on all sides: one two three four five, just stick them in and smack them out. I\u2019m so excited I\u2019m gonna explode! Almost there, almost at the top! Here comes the roof. Beautiful color! That was smooth. Don\u2019t forget the trunk, for your stupid stuff! If a friendship isn\u2019t fulfilling YOUR needs and is TOXIC then you are entitled to end that relationship! Removing NEGATIVE people is SELF-CARE and you don\u2019t owe that person an explanation if it would be a drain on emotional labour! You deserve to be free of messy people at ANY TIME! You don\u2019t owe anyone anything, you are free to be who you are, free from messy people at ANY TIME!<\/p><\/div>

Excerpt II<\/p><\/div>

Every time I find myself in places like these, there are always people who ask me: well babe, what is it that you actually do? Give a man a fish, and you\u2019ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he\u2019ll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you\u2019re a consultant. I\u2019ll help you catch a big fish. I\u2019ll help you think out of the box and then back into the box again. I\u2019ll help you unbox yourself till you are fully naked and crying like a little baby. I\u2019m your colon therapist. I will flush out your blockbusters so you can be your authentic self. I\u2019m your fairy godmother. I\u2019m going to pull your inner rabbit out of your outer butt. We\u2019ll find the perfect life-work-panic balance. I\u2019ll help you get: less friction, more flow. I\u2019m gonna say it again: less friction, more flow. When you\u2019ve set a goal, you\u2019ve committed to constant, never-ending improvement. I\u2019m gonna say it again. Constant never-ending improvement. There is power in t;he pressure of dissatisfaction, in the tension of temporary discomfort. This is the kind of pain you want in your life. This is the kind of pain you dream about in the magazines. This is a world where injustice is a chance, a chance to become a better chance in becoming a better world full of chances of injustice to chance up in becoming a better person.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote<\/div><\/div>

Excerpt III<\/p><\/div>

AND ACTION! I\u2019VE DONE EVERYTHING. I WENT AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. I SAW A LOT OF THINGS. I KNOW ALL ABOUT IT. I WROTE IT ALL DOWN. THIS IS MY CV! I MET EVERYBODY. I SAW A LOT OF SNAKES. I BECAME MANY PERSONS NOW. YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM THEM. THERE ARE A LOT OF PERSONS, BUT EVEN MORE FACES. I\u2019M SUPER ASSOCIATED. I SPEAK ALL THE LANGUAGES. I\u2019M REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT THE WORLD. I THINK IT\u2019S A NICE PLACE. I THINK IT\u2019S A HORRIBLE PLACE. I THINK IT\u2019S OKAY. IT\u2019S ON FIRE. I\u2019M ADVOCATING FOR A WORLD COMMUNITY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE. YOU COULD SAY I\u2019M AN ACTIVIST. VERY ACTIVE. VERY PROFESSIONAL. AGE IS JUST A NUMBER TO ME. I HAVE A LOT OF IDEAS. I WORK HARD. I\u2019M FLEXIBLE. I HAD A GREAT EDUCATION. I WAS LUCKY. WHEN I WAS SMALL, I ALWAYS DREAMED OF BECOMING. AND NOW I HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY. I WILL DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU. I WILL BE EVERYTHING FOR YOU. I\u2019M THE PERFECT CANDIDATE. I\u2019M NOT PARTICULAR. I\u2019M THE BOSS. I CAN DEAL WITH A LOT OF INFORMATION. I EAT THAT SHIT. I HAVE CARRIED TO AN EXTREME WHAT YOU DID NOT DARE TO CARRY OUT HALFWAY. IF I WOULD HAVE TO DESCRIBE MYSELF IN ONE WORD? CRYSTAL! I\u2019M GONNA SAY IT AGAIN: CRYSTAL!<\/p>

EXCLAMATION MARK. END OF SENTENCE. PERIOD. YOURS TRULY. CAPITAL LETTERS. EXCLAMATION MARK. I\u2019M GONNA SAY IT AGAIN. CAPITAL LETTERS. WOW, I JUST RECEIVED THIS BOX. I\u2019M VERY EXCITED. EXCLAMATION MARK. CAPITAL LETTERS. I\u2019M NOT QUITE SURE WHAT IT\u2019S LIKE INSIDE. I NOTICE THERE IS SOMETHING WRITTEN HERE:\u00a0 WITHOUT LIFE, MUSIC WOULD BE A MISTAKE.<\/p>

YOURS TRULY.<\/p><\/div>

Excerpt IV<\/p><\/div>

The small pup gnawed a hole in the sock. The fish twisted and turned on the bent hook. Press the pants and sew a button on the vest. The swan dive was far short of perfect. Her purse was full of useless trash. He stood there, like the column of a ruined temple. Read verse out loud for pleasure. This is the final boarding call for all passengers booked on flight 327A. Please proceed to gate 3 immediately. Final checks are being completed. The captor orders the closing of aircraft doors in approximately five minutes. I repeat. In approximately five minutes. We are now closing the gate. In the extraordinary case of personality loss, please turn off all your fucking electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones. Buckle up, fuckleheads, for the unlikely smoking event. Words words words, they are just\u2026 what? Nothing. Complicated airflow. Will take-off. Inflight movie will begin in five four three two two one:<\/p>

It\u2019s a sultry, starry, dark summer night, it\u2019s a Friday night. People are going out. Cheering and shouting in each other\u2019s ears. A young woman is standing on the pavement. She is wearing a little black dress, high heels and sunglasses. She decides to order an Uber. She installs the app on her phone, takes out some car keys and walks out of the image. We hear her looking for the right license plate number. On screen: BOT-86-LMK-624. She\u2019s a Mercedes Benz. She unlocks herself. She pulls up on the sidewalk and gets inside, in the back. The car smells like leather and so does she. Mercedes drives off. You can\u2019t even hear her engine running, it\u2019s being drowned out by the sticky noise of the seats. They crack and squeak. Music is playing. Suddenly she realises that something is not quite right. She undoes herself very slowly, until she\u2019s devoured by the leather heat. The cushions encircle her neck, and her head is clenched off of her body. She\u2019s being swallowed by the sofa and starts to slip deeper and deeper into the leather madness. The ride is overtaking her. She wants to scream, but who is driving? She\u2019s intoxicated now. In utter passivity, she sees the walls of the abyss coming towards her, engulfing her. Aghast, verses read out loud for pleasure echo into eternity. Heaps of word trash poured out all over her. Blanketing her with their stench. She disappears into the depths of a poisoned paradise. She doesn\u2019t know what this is all about, but she is ready now.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Carly Rae Heathcote<\/div><\/div>

A Letter<\/p><\/div>

Dear,
Thank you for your message. I am out of o\ufb03ce from start until end. I will get back to you as soon as I can. I\u2019m a little bit all over the place. For urgent matters you can contact my contact person.<\/em><\/p>

I am everywhere. I\u2019m with everybody. I\u2019m doing everything. I\u2019m thinking every thought. I\u2019m taking every step. I\u2019m singing all the songs. You can hear them everywhere. I know all about it. I wrote it all down. I\u2019m not particular. I can deal with a lot of information. I saw a lot of snakes. It might look a bit loose, but wait till it all comes together.<\/em><\/p>

I\u2019m an actress. I\u2019m standing in front of the theatre and I\u2019m not quite sure what it\u2019s like inside. The door is open because there is no door. There\u2019s evidence all over the floor, I\u2019m not quite sure whether I\u2019ve survived the crime. A tune is playing, dust is dancing, blood is dripping, ice is melting, my heart is beating so fast it\u2019s goosebumping me into a dimension of reality I\u2019ve never experienced before. I have been here before. I\u2019ve been everywhere.<\/em><\/p>

I\u2019m an actress. I\u2019m a simulation junkie, a crash test donkey. This is my CV. They said I could become anything I wanted so I did. It\u2019s a nice place to think from. It\u2019s a great doping mechanism: you don\u2019t really know what you are until you become it. In my case it is a \u2018multitude\u2019. In my free time I shift my desires into di\ufb00erent brands. I buy a lot of di\ufb00erent things with similar functions. At the end of the week I have to throw out a lot of stu\ufb00. But at the end of the week I also don\u2019t know who I am which is a great way to start the week-end.<\/em><\/p>

I like to surround myself with people that try to be like people. I try to leave the house. I try to go to the theatre. I try to go to the cinema. I try to go to exhibitions. I wear my fur. I\u2019m an actress. I want people to look at me as normal because that\u2019s who I am and that\u2019s what I\u2019m hiding. I try not to make a big scene out of it. I love humans. I\u2019m the daydream of a paragliding maniac. I\u2019m really passionate about the world. I think it\u2019s a nice place. I think it\u2019s a horrible place. I think it\u2019s okay. I think it\u2019s fine. I think it\u2019s on fire. I can smell it. I\u2019m the perfect candidate. This is my CV.<\/em><\/p>

I\u2019m a bad dream turned into an advertisement. My Uber is running late so I unlock myself with the car keys. Just before coming to my final destination I peep outside. The protesters are holding up a card-board sign: KILL LIVE THEATRE, TOGETHER WE CAN STOP IT CAPITAL LETTERS. I want to think of something beautiful.<\/em><\/p>

The driver whispers over the radio: \"the di\ufb00erence between life and machine is a hole.\" Don\u2019t be afraid to step into the unknown. We only have holes to crawl out of. The desert road runs by the edge of hollow time. Happiness is a crocodile. Grow up. Be a good parent. Spend time with family. Trust yourself. Be Mercedes Benz.<\/em><\/p>

I like to surround myself with inspirational quotes and sayings. They really help me to get through the day. It\u2019s going to be a very long day. Like yesterday. I was supposed to sing. Without life, music would be a mistake Nietzsche said. Today I\u2019m alive in the dungeon of my despair computer. Making my way to the past fast. Less friction, more flow. I speak many languages. I\u2019m claquemur\u00e9 watching austerity-tv. I can live anywhere I want something. A global community all by myself with just myself. My neck my back my pussy my crack my bedroom my car my o\ufb03ce my bar. My rent is high but so am I. My landlord has issues and asked me for advice. So I tell him: ask her out. Eat her out. The worst she can say is \"I would prefer not to\". But instead she texted: be different, ew.<\/em><\/p>

I have internet problems. Big heavy sticky ones. Like the ones we found in the garden, when I was making breakfast and you were still in debt. Or the ones we found when we were in the middle of our daily break-up routine and you left the gas on. Didn\u2019t last long. Or that time we went to see the doctor. He said \"I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m looking at,\" and the nurse was so scared that she dropped to her knees. The doctor said: \"Don\u2019t worry about it. I\u2019m going to look it up on the internet.\" And he did. He watched every video he could find about it. Then he diagnosed me with an 'intolerance'. I was 'intolerant'. This is my CV. I can\u2019t stop sharing. I\u2019m all over. Information comes as pain and not as power but this is the kind of pain I want in my life. This is the kind of pain you dream about in the magazines. Like when I was a child. I was wearing baby shoes and baby clothes. Now I\u2019m not that same little kid anymore. Now I\u2019m stuck against the window of the subway with my fears running down my thighs. I\u2019m wearing big baby shoes and big baby clothes and I didn\u2019t buy a ticket because it makes me feel alive. I am on my way. I\u2019m on my way to the theatre and I didn\u2019t buy a ticket because there were none on sale. But I like to snatch the birds there.<\/em><\/p>

Sincerely yours,
Bartlebabe<\/em><\/p><\/div>

Anna Franziska J\u00e4ger and Nathan Ooms are based in Brussels and make performances. They met during their theatre studies at KASK (Ghent), and have been closely working together ever since. Nathan later continued his studies at P.A.R.T.S.. Their performances rely on both text and choreography, exploring what it means to be alive under the influence of digital technologies. Works include \"Bartlebabe\"\u00a0(2020), \"Ambient Theatre Fury\"\u00a0(2022), \"DONKEY\"\u00a0(2023) and most recently \"Modesta (play of language and lips)\".<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Joana Lucas <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Joana Lucas <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Joana Lucas <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Butthole to Butthole<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Oceanic chimera in iridescent club hues \u2013 ronald berger\u2019s \"ANAL.IZANDO\" turns the other butt cheek and dreams of queer utopia.\u00a0<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Louise\u00a0Trueheart<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tperformance\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tBerlin\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n \"\" \n
\n Davi Pontes + Wallace Ferreira, Repert\u00f3rio N.2, photo by yako.one <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Sara Lanner, MINING MINDS, photo by Christine Miess <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Ana Pi, The Divine Cypher, photo by Daniel Nicoalevsky Maria <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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One Sentence Review: [8:tension] at ImPulsTanz<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Since 2001, [8:tension] as part of ImPulsTanz has become a summer staple, exposing the work of emerging choreographers to enthusiastic crowds and setting the tone for what's currently exciting or urgent in the world of dance and performance. <\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Claire Lef\u00e8vre<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tperformance\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttexts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n"},{"id":"jonida-laci-the-dynamics-of-beholding-and-being-beheld","postPreview":"\n
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\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Jonida La\u00e7i: The Dynamics of Beholding and Being Beheld<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

In her work, Jonida La\u00e7i negotiates structures of perception through questions surrounding form, gaze, standardization, and translation.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Miriam Stoney<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tart\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n","gallery":"
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Jonida La\u00e7i:In Transit At Ease <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"J'aime toi\", Can, Installation View. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Jonida La\u00e7i: \"J'aime toi\", Can, Installation View. <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

<\/p><\/div><\/div>","galleryGallery":"

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\n by<\/span> \n Miriam Stoney<\/span> <\/div>\n
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\n art <\/p>\n

\n people <\/p>\n

\n Vienna <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n \n

Jonida La\u00e7i: The Dynamics of Beholding and Being Beheld<\/h2>\n \n

In her work, Jonida La\u00e7i negotiates structures of perception through questions surrounding form, gaze, standardization, and translation.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n

May 8, 2025 <\/p>

<\/div>
Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz<\/div><\/div>

Jonida La\u00e7i<\/a> has cultivated an artistic practice that sits knowingly between sculpture and moving image. Each medium respectively articulates a position\u2014physical, cognitive and artistic\u2014towards the means of production and reception assumed to be inherent in the other. Sculpture asks of video what gaze it seeks to construct, while video shows how a viewpoint conditions our understanding of the material world, thereby shaping the production of affect and knowledge. Miriam Stoney put questions to the artist to find out how these art-technical concerns play into a broader examination of ordering structures within social systems, of which the exhibition setting is just one example.<\/p><\/div>

I'd like to begin with some basic observations about your work in order to unpack how your choice of media deconstructs ways of seeing. Would it be accurate to say you work with sculpture and film simultaneously, in your practice generally speaking and in specific installation or exhibition settings? What kind of relation does this simultaneity produce between these media?<\/p><\/div>\n

Engaging with media-specific habits of perception is crucial to my work. Actually I prefer to talk about moving image, still I often say that I come from film\u2014which means many things: I was working in film productions already before studying fine art. I also completed a degree in theatre, film and media studies\u2014which I came to simply because I loved watching television. Music videos and early YouTube definitely shaped my ways of seeing and understanding images and aesthetics.\u00a0<\/p>

In the visual arts then, I quickly became interested in sculpture, because I found it difficult to access at first. My initial approaches were very much informed by filmic structures and production processes \u2013 like cutting, rearranging and putting back together or working in series. Though for a long time I didn't want to make videos myself because I had learned to not trust the idea of representation. It's still the case that I often don't know whether what I'm doing will lead to a spatial or a filmic work or something else. But I almost always sketch using text. Describing materials, shapes, or situations to myself helps me in a way, that it makes things possible, that cannot but also don't have to be realized anywhere else but in language. In this sense, my practice involves a lot of translations.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Marcella Ruiz Cruz<\/div><\/div>

What is the advantage of this way of working, for you?<\/p><\/div>\n

It allows me to produce gaps. What sculpture and moving image have in common is that they can only ever be perceived in sequences. I have to rely on my memory to put them together from all sides or across time. The three-dimensionality of the sculpture too has to be constructed in my head, as there is never a moment when I can fully grasp it. I like that because it enables the viewer.<\/p>

I'm constantly navigating between still and moving, spatial and flat. At some point I also realised that my understanding of space is mainly characterised by perspective\u2014as the arrangement of objects on a surface or along a line \u2013 rather than by volume. I tend to think more in technical or optical terms such as proximity, visual axes, level, etc. I consciously try to utilise this, even while sculpture often reminds me that seeing is anchored in the body, since I want to move around it and too\u00a0 much spinning can lead to dizziness. Out of these relations, the installation or spatial positioning may reveal something like an unstable status of images and objects. This is where the positioning of a possible gaze can come into play.<\/p><\/div>

Is there something of a compromise required in working this way? On your part, or that of video or of sculpture?<\/p><\/div>\n

In my graduation show at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, I wanted to show video and sculpture in a common space. In their exhibiting conventions \u2013 at least in the short time that they have come to share a history with each other \u2013 the two media bring disparate dispositives with them, in order to produce their ideal viewing situation. Here I had to\u00a0 find a compromise. So, the filtered lighting became the initial condition for the exhibition.<\/p>

For me compromise is a strategy for dealing with questions of how to save space on the one hand and how to divide it, on the other. Does \"divide\" carry this double meaning of both \"share\" and \"separate\"? In German the word \"teilen\" seems to be even more ambivalent. The relation of\u00a0 saving and dividing space stem from my interest in order<\/em> as an aesthetic as well as a social category. It's also within these considerations that I have come to understand the matter of visibility as being associated with various ideas of value. Politically too visibility is very charged and I don't perceive it exclusively within its emancipatory narrative. There is also the condition of opacity which is very relevant.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View.<\/div><\/div>

Could you give an example to elucidate further what you mean with this?<\/p><\/div>\n

I first explored the idea of compromise in my show J'aime toi<\/em> 2023 at the artist-run space Can<\/a>, that Anna-Sophie Berger and Benjamin Hirte are curating. There I built a wobbly wooden construction reminiscent of shop window locks, which are usually used to protect the glass during storms, vacancies or demonstrations. It is a temporary measure that, by preventing people from seeing through or looking in, makes us realise that we have always been dealing with a material separation. There are those who consume inside and those who watch from outside. While glass initially valorises what is behind it, it also exposes it to constant danger. It's similar to the exhibition situation \u2013 one is surrounded by glass a lot. With the deployment of these pieces of wood, a compromise is accepted that exchanges representation for security. However, the sculpture on display did not offer this security.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View<\/div><\/div>

What I find especially interesting about this, as well as your diploma exhibition, AJAR,<\/em> at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is the way in which you also use objects associated with video, such as the projector and the projection surface, to figure different actors in dynamics of looking. How do the dynamics of beholding and being beheld feed into the arrangement of the objects you work with?<\/p><\/div>\n

The videos were not filmed by me; I received them in the course of everyday conversations. The people who sent them intended simply to show me what they were seeing at that moment. I chose to remain in the position of a \"2nd-hand observer\", intervening only to edit the videos in ways that emphasised my focus and framing.<\/p>

It was equally important for me to consider the technical and physical conditions of the exhibition space, and image production \u2013 the cables and so on \u2013 as sensitive materials in their own right. I built adapters to mount the projectors onto photo tripods, allowing them to remain flexible and light-footed. But also to kind of visibly stand in the way, to coordinate the viewer's movement around them.<\/p>

By treating the projectors as sculptural objects and first positioning them in the space as such, the trapezoidal distortion of the projections remained visible. The identical video was projected twice, synchronically and next to each other. I wanted to observe how the vantage point would shape the image and how this shape \u2013 its framing \u2013 is intertwined with its content.\u00a0<\/p>

The dependencies involved vary during the process and extend into the editing too. For example Probe into permanency<\/em> (2021\/2025) is a short sequence in portrait format that was shot with the phone on a boat crossing the Mediterranean Sea and runs in a loop. The water is choppy, the boat is too, and so is the hand that's filming. In editing, I level the horizon and move the frame so that the water always remains horizontal. By doing so, the image content sometimes gets cropped or the frame expands \u2013 you can interpret that as you want \u2013 and in some places you end up with areas where there is no more image information. This creates shifting shapes, such that I have to ask myself which areas belong to the picture and which areas I perceive as such. It was also fun to see how a seesawing dance-like movement can emerge as a reaction to this normative intervention.<\/p>

The exhibition also included, besides other objects, a sculpture made of MDF, painted with dispersion paint \u2013 materials one might typically use for pedestals \u2013 and was unfolded into something like a screen. It was not used as a projection surface and never was intended to, so it acquired the status of a sculpture.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i: \"Ajar\" at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Installation View<\/div><\/div>

The relationship between moving image and object that you describe seems to concern an active structuring of what we could call the \"gaze\". In what sense can this be understood as a physical, corporeal intervention? How do these arrangements disrupt the social norms that typically serve to construct a specific gaze?<\/p><\/div>\n

I wanted to arrange the projections, the projecting objects, and the objects being simultaneously looked at, so that one moves as a looking subject in a way that resembles dance. Aiming towards that sensation I mentioned earlier; the awareness that seeing is a sensual experience that takes place in a body and that this body is situated too. This is something that the invention of the lens and thus the establishment of an idea of objectivity in Western traditions of knowledge production has elided.<\/p>

For me it's obvious that I'm dealing with movement if I'm watching films or reels all the time or live in the city. Setting images in motion might make me think that this movement could destabilise them, but it's just as obvious that it's not that easy. Dance, at least as I see it, holds its own unique role as being inefficient within this logic. Movement carries the modern promise of overcoming order and providing constant change. But dance is motion that does not bring progress but desire, or comes from it. Would you call that defiant or subversive?\u00a0 I like imagining that everyone who enjoys dancing does so professionally because you can start from your own body knowledge. That is something that forms connections.<\/p>

To come back to the gaze: Last year, I spent some time with\u00a0the texts, photos and films of Babette Mangolte. She is a photographer and filmmaker who documented the developments in the New York dance scene of the 1970s and 80s and, for example, did camera work for Yvonne Rainer and Chantal Akermann. These artists' works really disrupted the social norms that construct a specific gaze because they made it possible for the viewer to localise the position from which they were looking.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i:In Transit At Ease<\/div><\/div>

How do you perceive the exhibition space as a scene of interaction in and of itself?<\/p><\/div>\n

I am often asked whether my works are site-specific. I like that because I think they convey something that I don't intend or perhaps even perform a little. Tom Burr has said in connection with his sculpture Deep Purple<\/em> that it \"passes<\/em> as site-specific... It just mimics or poses as if it were.\" I often think about that! Also because with \"passing\" he uses a word that is known as a queer or anti-racist survival strategy. I guess it's about appropriating certain conventions and visual codes \u2013 those of exhibiting or of spaces of art, for example \u2013 in order to reflect on them with their own means. This mood of \"as if\" feels dear to me.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i: \"J'aime toi\", Can, Installation View.<\/div><\/div>

I want to ask about your position on conceptual stringency, but it feels like putting this into words would amount to a zero-sum game, as the proclamation of any strict adherence to a conceptual framework would make the work's execution seem arbitrary, as is usually assumed about conceptual art, at least in theory. Maybe I could ask you instead how this process of making unfolds, at which point does the concept establish itself within the work's execution, and when does your work with the material find its conceptual fulfilment?<\/p><\/div>\n

I am interested in the concept or conceptual stringency as a legitimisation strategy, as opposed to formal, aesthetic or so-called intuitive decisions. What I mean is, I wonder how I can use a concept as a narrative. It does not motivate me in the sense of parameters for decisions that I make in my work, but rather as a fictionalisation of these parameters.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Jonida La\u00e7i: \"J'aime toi\", Can, Installation View.<\/div><\/div>

You have worked with a lot of standardised products: MDF boards, the office chair or t-shirts, for example. <\/em>Perhaps the interesting question is not where you get your material from, but what these forms carry with them into the spaces in which you exhibit?<\/p><\/div>\n

The materials I use often refer to standards of transport, work processes or storage as systems of order and structure \u2013 all themes that are part of my work, e.g. my hands and cars are reasonable units of measurement for me. They have a camouflaging quality that simultaneously and paradoxically makes them recognisable, because they are known as surfaces and used as projections surfaces from everyday experience. I don't necessarily start from them, but I often arrive at these normalising materials or forms and shapes because they enjoy the advantage of being unmarked. They seem so neutral. And they appear to exist outside any system of reference, while in fact they embody it. And I wonder if this collapsing of reference and form into one could cause an imminent breakdown. I mean, the sculptures are quite literally trying to hold themselves together. Most of the time, it's the materials themselves that need an other<\/em> to take shape or to maintain it. I would call that an act of defining and I exert a lot of pressure on them.<\/p><\/div>

Jonida La\u00e7i (*1990 in Durr\u00ebs, Albania) lives and works in Vienna. She studied Object Sculpture with Julian G\u00f6the as well as Art and Digital Media with Constanze Ruhm at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her work has recently been shown in her solo exhibition at Can, Vienna, as well as in group exhibitions at Forde, Geneva; OxfordBerlin\/Linienstrasse, D\u00fcsseldorf; etta, D\u00fcsseldorf; Fondation Tschuess, Karlsruhe; Kunstraum Schwaz, Tyrol; K\u00fcnstlerhaus, Vienna; Zink, Vienna.
She will soon open exhibitions at Courtney J\u00e4ger<\/a>, Basel and Marais Moeras<\/a>, Brussels.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\t\t\tYoung Art Spaces\t\t\t<\/p>\t\t\t<\/div>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n \t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Flavio Karrer <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n Photo by Flavio Karrer <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Young Art Spaces: Blue Velvet Projects<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

In this series, we take a closer look at selected initiatives that shape the vivid art scenes of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Paula Thomaka<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tart\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tZurich\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n Photo by Oskar Ott <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Installation view \"Pos. 18 Stuck in Mud\" by Hanna Ku\u010dera at WAF Gallery; Photos by Manuel Carreon Lopez\/Kunst-dokumentation <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Oskar Ott <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Hanna Ku\u010dera: Shifting Positions, or: As if we Already Went Through the Apocalypse<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

The artistic practice of Vienna-based artist Hanna Ku\u010dera navigates the fine line between play and work, fiction and reality, professionalism and parody. Through her evolving \u2018para-play,\u2019 she stages Positions that reflect on the pressures of artistic professionalization, the liberating potential of play, and the paradox of moving forward while feeling stuck.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Sophia Roxane Rohwetter<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tart\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tVienna\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n\n"},{"id":"golin-serpentine-rooms-highways-feelings","postPreview":"\n
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\n Photo by Pe Ferreira <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Golin: Serpentine Rooms, Highways, Feelings<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Following the release of her debut album \"sensor\", singer and producer Golin sits down to discuss her new musical direction, trading hyperpop-theatrics for ambiance.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Nikolas Brummer<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tmusic\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpeople\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tAmsterdam\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\n\n<\/div>\n","gallery":"
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Pe Ferreira <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Photo by Pe Ferreira <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
\n \"\" \n
\n Photo by Pe Ferreira <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n Photo by Pe Ferreira <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

<\/p><\/div><\/div>","galleryGallery":"

<\/div>","postContent":"\n\n
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\n by<\/span> \n Nikolas Brummer<\/span> <\/div>\n
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\n music <\/p>\n

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\n Amsterdam <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n \n

Golin: Serpentine Rooms, Highways, Feelings<\/h2>\n \n

Following the release of her debut album \"sensor\", singer and producer Golin sits down to discuss her new musical direction, trading hyperpop-theatrics for ambiance.<\/p><\/div><\/div> \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n

Apr 27, 2025 <\/p>

<\/div>
Photo by Pe Ferreira<\/div><\/div>

sensor<\/a><\/em> marks a departure from the glitchy J-pop and deconstructed club appeal that once defined the sound of Rin Suemitsu aka Golin<\/a>. Embracing cinematic ambient scores, playfully stacked vocal arrangements and organic instrumentation, the album weaves a protean journey between the American Midwest and rural Japan. Through ballads, lullabies, as well as sonic and text-based experiments, she follows an artistic objective that favors atmospheric calmness over the high-energy movement and frenetic performativity which materialized her previous releases on stage. One spring day in Berlin, she meets Nikolas Brummer for a conversation. Seated on a black leather couch in a barren, run-down office space, they talk about her latest project\u2014drifting between dimensions of nostalgia, Golin's shape-shifting persona, and music's capacity to render narrative space through sound.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

I was listening to sensor<\/em> before you got here, wanting to put myself into the right headspace. It's been a constant for me these past weeks, accompanying me like a familiar and comfortable, somewhat melancholic blanket. Before, your music has always had a different effect on me, more energizing and propulsive. The last time we met in-person was two years ago\u2014it seems that some things have changed for you ever since. I'm curious to know: what sparked this shift?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

I hadn't released anything for two years and felt a pressure to deliver this packaged pop album, which I had kind of built up myself to deliver. But things were not really in-sync with that. I started collecting a new library of sounds and played around with piano and guitar. I had spent so much time in the past years working with software and I just wanted to pull away from that. Over time, I gathered a lot of material without a precise goal. It felt like I was exercising\u2014not practicing in a traditional sense, just making things every day.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

This approach to producing music feels almost diaristic, like days going by, endlessly flowing into one another. There's a feeling of serenity and ambiguity to that, which is present in the music, too.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

Yeah, I wanted to experiment with new spaces within my process of composition and production. On sensor<\/em>, this <\/em>ended up being about stripping down the layers of songs and letting the details and variations become the main event. I wanted morphing colors and more breath. Loop and repetition have been ways for me to deal with that; the other way is to decenter my voice by letting it slip into other elements in the music.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

I can see that\u2014within the album's context, the vocals stand out precisely because they appear so sparingly. This casts the voice as an elusive protagonist. You open the album singing in Japanese, saying something about a fresh beginning. What is this the beginning of?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

\"A fresh beginning but not a first, when we lick each other's wounds properly no one can criticize\u2026\"\u2014yeah, it's all fragmented. Associative momentary flashes, ideas disaggregating into sounds and a few times coming together into proper pop songs. The first and last track anchored a sort of timeline, and everything in between became more free-floating and textural, both as a form and a dramatization of the emotional spaces I was in.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Photo by Pe Ferreira<\/div><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

This makes me think of the notion of the pop star as a kind of narrator\u2014someone telling a story\u2014whereas ambient music is more embedded, more concerned with setting a background, a frame or a mood. Your album references a lot of mood-based music\u2014chill-out lounge, trip-hop, even mid-2000s microsound or glitch ambient. Then in some moments, as you've said, it morphs into deep, stomping downtempo beats. What was it about that time in music that interested you?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

That period felt like the afterparty of what came before it. That was also the time when I moved from the suburbs of Southern Japan to the American Midwest. I think music can be unconsciously influenced by what you hear and what surrounds you when you're a kid or even a baby\u2014how these sounds become vague, embedded memories, an ambiance of sorts. That did influence the music in some ways. But I like to keep it vague rather than saying, \"Yeah, I was listening to Cibo Matto and that inspired the music.\"<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

Interesting that you mention Cibo Matto \u2014 they actually feel like a strong reference point for elements in your album. Their move from Japan to New York and the cultural shift it brought really shaped their sound. There\u2019s a long history of cross-cultural reference between Japanese and US music, often tied to forms of nostalgia. Cibo Matto both embraced and subverted these influences, creating something entirely their own. I sense a similar layered quality in your work\u2014recurring themes like consumerism, food culture, suburbia or driving in cars down highways. Was that something you were thinking about: the connection between the two places you grew up in?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

Yeah, singing in Japanese started as a way to not lose something.\u00a0For sensor,<\/em> the imagery I used is just part of what's always around, what you can't stop noticing. Not good or bad, just there.<\/p><\/div>

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Photo by Pe Ferreira<\/div><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

It feels like you're not trying to impose meaning but rather staying close to the act of noticing itself\u2014like memory unfolding as it happens. I really liked what you wrote on Instagram when you announced the album: \"The process has been of serpentine rooms, highways, feelings, wide open horizons, blurred visions, finally focusing.\"\u2014I think that really encapsulates it.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

Yeah, my process can be pretty chaotic, and the shifts in my music reflect that, too.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

I'd also like to talk about the album cover\u2014you standing in a vintage hotel room, your body in dramatic motion as a disproportionately large apple is crashing through the windowpane. It's somehow a forceful motif, but still it's got such a soft and visceral, almost dreamy atmosphere.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

I was traveling with my partner as we ended up staying at a hotel next to Los Angeles Airport. The room had a view onto another wing of the same building: a L-shape reflecting the black mirror facades onto each other. At the time, I was mixing the album and I felt that it lived in this space. We just snapped a few pics and decided it was a good image for the cover.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

It seems like space is central to the music on sensor<\/em>\u2014it evokes different rooms, different atmospheres, kind of like how ambient music is architectural, too. How would you describe these spaces the album inhabits?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

The album is really spatial and also semi-biographical, so I guess it\u2019s biographically architectural. It is a huge collage of different environments; bedrooms, hotel rooms, airports, horizons, spaces of transition, opening wide and closing tightly on each other.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

This spatiality reminds me, too, of your album launch event. I only followed it via social media, but the distinct images of people sitting in a dim lit studio space, listening to you performing, still resonates in my mind. Can you tell me a bit more about that space\u2014your living room? As I understand, you also use it as some kind of project space?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

My closest collaborator, Filippo Tocchi and I run a space in our apartment in Amsterdam called GDL525<\/a>, functioning as a curatorial office and studio. We've organized a few shows there since 2022 and this year we're working on expanding in a full program. It is a loft that we use for producing and presenting exhibitions and events. In October, we hosted a listening event for sensor<\/em>. This idea just felt right; to have a first private listening session with friends in the space that I spent so much of my time creating the album. I invited ssaliva who is featured on one of the tracks of the album, and Peter from P.L.N. sent me a few of their pieces to wear. It was also the first time playing live with friend and artist Ivan Cheng, who played the clarinet on two of the tracks on the recorded album as well.<\/p><\/div>

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Photo by Pe Ferreira<\/div><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

What do these collaborations mean to you? You also developed the soundtrack for Shade Theret's performance Daybreak<\/em> at Sophiensaele earlier this year.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

With Golin, the process has felt quite singular at times, maybe because the music has a non-confirmative approach. It's important to open the process up to other artists who share a similar vision and to experience the changes and outcome. I loved working with Shade for that. For Daybreak<\/em>, I scored the piece mainly with a prepared piano and produced two pop tracks.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

At the end of the piece, you came out to perform one of these tracks as the finale while Shade danced in the front of the stage. It felt like there was a certain distance between you and the audience. It was your silhouette, central to the stage, yet hidden behind a veil.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

Yes, definitely \u2026 I shift between personas, and I like to make that aspect present as part of my work in different ways.<\/p><\/div>

Nikolas<\/p><\/p><\/div>

And how, would you say, does this shape-shifting intuition reveal itself now?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rin<\/p><\/p><\/div>

The Golin pop-theatrics as well as the character are still there but also evolved: without the urgency to be consumed and seen as it had been, it is for sure something different. It has more depth and openness, which I believe is what music should be.<\/p><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n Against Interpretation Club x Schinkel Pavillon. <\/em>Photo by Courtesy <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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Courtesy: Sound, Space, Syntax<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

The DJ, artist and curator is talking about sound in visual terms, thinking of literature as architecture, and curating events like she's building mixtapes.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Sarah Johanna Theurer<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tBerlin\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Damsel Elysium: Holding it, Enhancing it.<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t

Through a somatic lens, the sound and performance research of Damsel Elysium is an enduring process of unlearning relationships with established knowledge, one's own body, and the objectual world.<\/p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\n\t

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\n\t\t\tby<\/span>\n\t\t\t Federica Nicastro<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tLondon\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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