Wed 22.5. & Thu 23.5.2024 // 19.30
Photo: Tina Kult
Wed 22.5. & Thu 23.5.2024 // 19.30
Performance with live sound // Bräuhausgasse 40, 1050 Vienna // free donations // bar & food
Performance, concept, costume: sissi petutschnig
Sound, concept: Maria Danilina
Digital support: Tina Kult
Costume support: Julian Schock
Outside Eye: Olivia Axel Scheucher
Coaching: Anita Kaya, Sara Lanner
In ‘wie die Fliegen.’ the mayfly serves as a metaphor for the human being as a subject of achievement. The mayfly, embodied by sissi petutschnig, serves as a symbol of triviality and restlessness, and draws parallels to modern society. The direct translation refers performatively to routines that dominate our everyday lives as well as leisure time, and contrasts externally controlled habits with self-determination. While we are all subject to the compulsion to accelerate, to increase our performance, ‘wie die Fliegen.’ searches for alternatives to break this cycle. The search for duration, the long while, serves as a method to equalize the fast pace of life.
A site-specific observation in the fifth district of Vienna serves as the basis, which is documented on film. In the process-oriented performance, the collected material marks four different stations, which sissi petutschnig goes through cyclically as a fly. The tempo increases with each subsequent run, while the performer is increasingly alienated with the help of costumes and movement patterns, transforming herself into a humanoid insect. The result is a metaphor for the small-minded individual who serves the system through productivity. The used media raises the question of the angle and perspective from which our actions are judged. Who or what is this supposedly intrinsic urge to act? At the same time, it points to our intensified existence, which increasingly points to a passive way of life.
The multimedia production is accompanied acoustically by Maria Danilina. Her live music emphasizes every action of the protagonist. The audience’s behavior is also humorously contextualized with sounds and integrated into the plot along with other interactive strategies.
Fleeing, flying, freedom, circling around oneself, observing, waiting, repetition.
Overwork and mental health. A plea.
Fotos: Im_flieger/Franzi Kreis
Maria Danilina (AT) Maria Danilina is a cultural mediator, DJ, studies musicology at the University of Vienna and is currently working as a musician with sound design. She is part of the heimlich Kollektiv, a non-profit organisation for the promotion of electronic subcultures, and founder of Nachtigall, a podcast that portrays Vienna’s urban music scene in the field of club culture. Two years ago, it was honored with the independent scene award. She is also part of the Kultur for President initiative. As part of the feminist project Donna Decks, she coaches FLINTA* people as an experienced DJ (self-employed in Vienna for over 10 years) and trains them to become musicians. For the past two years, her work has been increasingly intertwined with projects in the field of visual arts.
sissi petutschnig (AT) As a mixed-media artist, sissi petutschnig dedicates herself to a site-specific practice focusing on performance art, expressed in videos, sound and spatial installations, poetry, costume and tape art. Participatory, process-orientated and collective strategies often play an important role, and the content thematically revolves around political discourses such as classism, intersectionality, queer feminism or post-humanism as well as institutional critique. Dreams, symbols and language itself have a strong influence. sissi petutschnig lives and works in Vienna and is completing her studies at the University of Applied Arts in 2025 in the class for Site Specific Art.