tuesday 28.6. and wednesday 29.6., 9 pm, republic
“tonight is a night of stripping, tonight is a night of peeling away, layer by layer by layer by layer – what will be left?” asks kate mcintosh, clad in glittering green cocktail dress, in her unearthly voice. the children of two molecular biologists, she grew up in new zealand, where she danced in meryl tankard’s theater and began to experiment with performance art and a particularly british combination of absurd humor and beautiful poetry in her work. so it’s almost typical when the show begins, las vegas revue-style, to explore some of the largest philosophical-scientific questions of our age: mass and time, soul and body, humanity, matter, and especially the great unknown, dark matter. the complex science is presented like on a tv game show and becomes drastically, radically simple. with the help of assistants thomas kasebacher and bruno roubicek, respectively as her “conscious” and “unconscious” selves, mcintosh uses humorous images and melodrama right out of a 1930s-era show to support the audience on this mental adventure.
in english with german subtitles
meet the artist: kate mcintosh, wednesday, 29.6., 3 pm, mozarteum university, paris-londonstrasse 9
also on 28.6.: nathalie koger: deflections: a sonic circus performance, 2nd act, tuesday, 28.6., 7 pm, argekultur
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:
szene salzburg is taking a major step in its summer program and is declaring sommerszene a “free festival“ from now on. this means we are not selling tickets anymore and are announcing the freedom of art being also the freedom of participation. this move and the discussion that is raised around it allows us a strong and basic communication to a wider public and to focus on the present and future role of the arts.
being the content of this festival we very much would like the artists to be part of this communication and help us to enrich the discussion with your statements. here are three questions that we’ve asked them and the answers:
what influential developments are you expecting in the upcoming future?
In the upcoming future, I fully expect that there will be an evolution, a revolution, of economic reality – a change of collective thinking that will finally turn us aside from ideas of endless growth, and blow apart our cultural fixation on measuring ‘value’ with monetary units… I fully expect and hope for this!
what role should (will) the arts play?
At best the arts will help in preparing fertile ground for unfamiliar, useful ideas and experiences. At worst they’ll be a late and hyped-up side-show for them.
what chances does a free performing arts festival offer?
I imagine that it’s a good thing to experiment with decoupling art experiences and consumption procedures, and that value might become renegotiated when it has no price attached. I’m looking forward to finding out!
