OPEN ATELIER – Autumn of Beautiful Gestures

Bri Schöllbauer (AT) (*1964), bodywork and design, lives and works in Salzburg. She received her training for dance and dance theater in Salzburg, Vienna, London and N.Y., for decoration and exhibition design at the London College of distribute Trade and Merchandising. Since 1997 she has been working as a freelance artist and designer. She is a TUINA practitioner and trained in the TALMI Method®. In 2011 she founded Upcycling-Werkstatt und Denkraum in Salzburg. This is where sustainability and material, bodywork and think processes find their place. The work of the last years consisted of a deep reflection on the connection of her training in dance and bodywork with the design of things/objects and materials in different spaces. She developed an interdisciplinary working style between bodywork and craft. “For me, different materials are the most important resources for design processes in space – as soon as they are perceived, the space changes. Also in bodywork I try to perceive the body in relation to the surrounding space. In this work, I am concerned with creating a good connection between the body and the space as an expression of health.” www.brigitta-schoellbauer.at

Claudia Heu (AT) is an artist, performer and lecturer living in Vienna. She works in Europe, Mongolia and the USA. Her work includes site-specific performances, installations and interventions. Her collaboration with filmmakers, activists, hairdressers, actors, bus drivers, visual artists, night watchmen, etc. changes depending on the project and location. Since 2013, she has been working with Mongolian and Austrian artists and scientists on the research project Alga Bolokh – On Disappearance in Ulan Bator, the Gobi Desert and Berlin. Alga Bolokh deals with threatened places and spaces, with the untold and the invisible. www.claudiaheu.com

Cristina Yurena Zerr (DE/AT) grew up between Gran Canaria and Southern Germany. She studied social sciences and art in Vienna. She works as a filmmaker, guest lecturer and publishes texts on anti-militarism and Christian libertarian movements. In her work, she repeatedly deals with the interaction of mysticism and resistance.

Ella Felber (AT) *1994, searches for places in the overlay of architecture, text and dance. She studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, spatial design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and performative arts in various institutes and initiatives in Vienna and Copenhagen. www.ellafelber.eu

Jakob Egger (AT) born 1990 in Innsbruck/Austria. Actor. 2010 – 2013 studies for stage design at the University for Applied Arts Vienna. 2012 – 2016 studies with Bachelor degree in acting at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. During his studies, he worked in productions of the Wiener Festwochen, at the Volkstheater Wien and the Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich with Blanka Rádóczy. In Summer 2016, he worked in the play LENZ by Georg Büchner at the Festival d’Avignon, a co-produciton with the Salzburger Festspiele. Beginning with Season 2016/2017 until 2019, Jakob Egger was an ensemble member of Theater Ulm in Germany, and in Season 2019/2020 at Salzburg State Theater. At the 2021 Summer Festival “Tiroler Volksschauspiele”, he worked together with director Peter Lorenz on a play by Neil LaBute. Upcoming engagements include a text from Thomas Arzt which will be staged together with Susanne Lietzow at the Tiroler Volksschauspielen in 2022. Jakob Egger works as a freelance actor, speaker and stage designer in Vienna. www.jakobegger.tumblr.com

Joanna Zabielska (PL/AT) is working on the intersection of art, design, architecture and urban planning, approaching the social and spatial issues of the transformation of the city. Using different media – from VR installation, inflatable sculptures to cooking performances, she develops participatory, site- specific projects together with the local community. Graduated from Urban Planning at the Technical University of Vienna and Social Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, currently enrolled into Digital Arts Program, she tries to merge design and art practices. „I think that all art is socially conscious. There is no alternative. Whatever we produce contains a political and social statement.” She strongly agrees with Alfredo Jaar and further believes that a participatory and socially engaged art may contribute to actual social and political change. By not accepting the limitations that society has accepted, it can visualize alternatives and provoke to see the same in new ways. According to the statement of Krzysztof Wodiczko: „just criticism is not enough, art should also propose something”. Being based both in Vienna and Warsaw, she has also realized projects in international and multicultural environments (throughout the last years in Caucasus- Georgia and Armenia, Middle East- Lebanon, recently also in New York). www.joannazabielska.com

MyoE Doris Harder (AT) lives in Vienna and is an ordained Zen priestess in the lineages of Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi and Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She has spent 10 years in Buddhist monasteries and centers in USA, Austria and Switzerland. Now she enjoys teaching Zen, mindfulness, leadership, ethics, creativity, and “what holds the world together at its core” in secular contexts just as much. Her second profession is theater director, which benefits playful and humorous teaching.

Philipp J. Ehmann (AT) ist Theatermacher und transdisziplinärer Multimediakünstler. Seit seinem Theaterstudium an der University of Exeter arbeitet er mit spielerischen Formen des Theaters und versucht politische Themen auf verschiedenen Erfahrungsebenen greifbar zu machen und so Spielräume zum sicheren Ausprobieren und Diskutieren zu schaffen. Ehmann ist Mitbegründer Play:Viennas, Österreichs erster Initiative für spielerische Kunst im öffentlichen Raum. Seine Arbeiten reichen von intimen Telefonperformances im öffentlichen Raum für eine Person (Der Personal Adventure Automat, Streetlife Festival 2014) zu immersivem Game Theater auf Bühnen (Press Staat for Revolution, Schauspielhaus Graz 2016), Social Media Soaps mit geflüchteten Jugendlichen (Stahlstadt, Ars Electronica Festival 2019) bis hin zu Community Rechercheprojekten in Wohnsiedlungen in Großstädten (Die Siedler von Süd-Wien, Play:Vienna & WERK X 2020). Manchmal kuratiert er auch oder forscht in Residencies wie jener am am Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics in Washington DC. www.pje.me