Lab for Performance and Post-Dramatic Acting 3.2
with
Nicole Haitzinger (dance and theatre theoretician),
Martin Nachbar (performer),
Stefan Nowotny (philosopher),
Michaela Pöschl (art theoretician, visual artist),
Sabine Sonnenschein (performer)
Idea, organisation: Sabine Sonnenschein
08.04 - 20.04.2002
Tanzquartier Wien

Laboratory for performance and post-dramatic acting is hosted by TQW. The specific angle of this laboratory series is an exchange practice, a co-operative encounter of female and male performers, musicians / sound designers, visual artists, art and culture theoreticians, philosophers and researchers of theatre study, making it possible to receive impulses from each other and to put new approaches to the test. A direct connection of art practice and theory production is intended. Exchange and research are the main aspects. No production is developed, but sketches and processes are made public at certain times in which the visitors may participate in various forms for free or a "pay as you wish" fee.

In Laboratory for performance and post-dramatic acting 3.2, will continue the discourse with texts by Hannah Arendt and Maurice Merleau-Ponty begun in January, 2002 in Im_flieger / WUK. The visual artist and art theoretician Michaela Pöschl and the performer Sabine Sonnenschein introduce their experience from January into the laboratory process in TQW. Other participants will be the dance theoretician Nicole Haitzinger, the performer Martin Nachbar and the philosopher Stefan Nowotny.
Hannah Arendts demand for publicity, her emphasis on the space of appearance that forms between people through acting and talking, as well as her metaphorical usage of the terms theatre, actor/actress, and onlooker are matters of interest for (dance) performance. In "The Thinking", Arendt takes the world as an appearance, and directly refers to the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, whose text "Intertwining - Chiasm" and the term "flesh" contained in it will likewise be central issues of the lab.

"Acting is the only action of the Vita Activa, which takes place directly between people without the mediation of matter, material and objects."1 (...) "This Between in space is the space of appearance in the most general sense, the space which is created when people appear before each other, and in which they are not only present like other animate or inanimate objects, but expressly make an appearance."2

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1) Hannah Arendt, "Vita Activa",Piper, 2001, p.17
2) ibid., p.250

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Participants:

Nicole Haitzinger:
Born in 1976 in Salzburg / A
Dance and theatre theoretician.
1994-2000 theatre studies at Vienna university, journalism and communication (specialsing in public relations and advertising). Diploma thesis: Real-Time Composition, an art research project in the border area of theatre, performance and dance. Since autumn 2000 studying for doctorate and dissertation on theatre studies (working title: Attempt on a phenomenology of European dance performance - terminology body - space - time), specialising in dance studies. Autumn 2001: Research grant for scientific work with Prof. Dr. Claudia Jeschke, department of dance studies, Cologne university.
Projects: 1999: Scientific observer and research for the European art project "Real-Time-Composition", organised by Re.al in Lisbon, in the framework of her diploma (as scholarship holder).
1999: Project oriented co-operation in T Junction Contemporary Dance and Performance (Project by Nigel Charnock, audited by João Fiadeiro.)
2000: Tutor at Vienna university / Institute for theatre studies with Univ.Ass. Mag. Fuxjäger.
2001: supervision of the project "Black Honey Drops", a co-operation of Akemi Takeya and Ko Murobushi (ImpulsTanz Festival, Museumsquartier, Vienna).
2001: Attendance and documentation of the choreographic workshop "Thought, Poetry and Body in Action" by Vera Mantero at "Tanz im August" in Berlin.
November 2001: Documentation and scientific attendance of the research project "Autorschaft" with Liz King, Philipp Gehmacher and Pilottanzt in Tanzquartier Vienna.

Martin Nachbar:
Born in 1971 in Düsseldorf / D
Performer.
1996-1992 studies at SNDO, Amsterdam (diploma). 1995 studies and work in New York in various places and with different people.
1996 performer in "eat, eat, eat" by Hans v.d. Broeck of Les Ballets C. de la B., Gent.
1997-1998 performer in "better a blip than a blop" by Martin Butler for the National Ballet, Amsterdam; making of "undressed" and "photographic memory", both premiered in Amsterdam; making of "corrupt patience", performance installation shown in gallery "UI", Amsterdam.
1998-1999 studies at PARTS, Brussels.
1999 performer in and co-maker of "events for television (again)" by Tom Plischke and the B.D.C.; performer in "aviation/abreviation" by Schiyo Takahashi, Antwerp.
2000 making of "ReKonstrukt", premiere in May in LOFFT, Leipzig; reconstruction of "Affectos Humanos" for "affects/rework" by Joachim Gerstmeier, Martin Nachbar and Tom Plischke; premiere in February in Mousonturm, Frankfort.
2001 performer in "re(sort)" by Tom Plischke.

Stefan Nowotny:
Born in 1968 in Salzburg / A
Philosopher.
Lives in Brussels and Vienna. Philosophy diploma at Vienna university, doctorate studies at Vienna university. Currently at Louvain-la-Neuve university, Belgium.
His main topics in research and work are: critical scrutiny of the "culture" discourse, theory of culturalism and racism, theory of the archivarian "memory", political theory, phenomenology.
Co-editor of: Michel Henry. Zur Selbsterprobung des Lebens und der Kultur (with Rolf Kühn, to be published by Alber, 2002) and Mythos Kultur (with Michael Staudigl, to be published by turia+kant, 2002); various contributions in philosophical publications and magazines (Falter, Kultur-Risse, Kultur, Triebwerk etc.); lectures in academical, art and adult education institutions; co-organisation and -conception of research seminars at Vienna university; freelance culture work and theoretical co-operation in art projects (e.g. lecture perfomance with the singer Agnes Heginger in the framework of "rush hour" in Kunsthalle Wien, 1997; basic and conceptual work for the film project "Altes Haus. Szenen einer Erinnerung" by Friedemann Derschmidt, premiere presumably 2002). Political-activist work in the framework of the projects "gettoattack" and "Wiener Wahl Partie".
Founding member of the School for Theoretical Politics, Vienna, where he also gave the workshop "Zero Point of Politics" at the Academy of Visual Arts, Vienna (2001, with Boris Buden), as well as conception and organisation of the symposium "Cultural Touch" in the framework of Wiener Festwochen, 2001 ("du bist die welt", Künstlerhaus Vienna, with Boris Buden and Oliver Marchart).

Michaela Pöschl:
Born in 1970 in Neunkirchen / A
Art theoretician, visual artist.
Lives in Vienna. 1990-1999 Vienna university, studies art history, special topics: body art, avantgarde film. 1995-96 University of California Los Angeles, Exchange Student, working with Paul McCarthy, Amelia Jones and Peter Sellars. Since October 2000 studying film/video with Birgit Hein at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig. Since October 2001 studying with Renee Green at the Akademie für Bildende Künste in Vienna.
Publications: "Der Körper muss hart sein / I tense the muscles in my stomach till I puke", in: Swamp Journal, ed. Helmut Ploebst, co-operation with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, Wiener Festwochen and tanz2000.at, Vienna 2000.
"Kurt Kren. Die Aktions-Filme. Schnitt und Perversion" (Kurt Kren. The action films. Cutting and perversion), Tectum Verlag, Marburg, autumn 2000.
"Lets make it Halloween. Get out your knife, carve me like a pumpkin and then lets fuck. Thoughts on the flesh of Kurt Kren, Paul McCarthy and Ron Athey", in: Kurt Kren, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Julius Hummel, Vienna 1998.
Performances in Richard Heller Gallery and CalState Fine Arts Gallery (1996), in dietheater Konzerthaus (1997), dietheater Künstlerhaus (2000), and others.
Videos: "Der Schlaf der Vernunft" (The sleep of reason, 1999), "Ich bin der letzte Dreck" (I'm no better than dirt, 2000), Ausstellung/exhibition (2001).

Sabine Sonnenschein:
Born in 1970 in Klosterneuburg / A
Performer, choreographer.
Studied: theatre studies, philosophy and art history at Vienna university (no degree). Dance and performance education: contemporary dance, classical ballett, contact improvisation, release techniques, developmental movement, physical theatre and voice in Vienna and NYC (with David Steele, Zvi Gotheiner, Donna Uchizono, Jeremy Nelson, Andrew Harwood, Gill Clarke, Wendell Beavers, Lloyd Newson, Meg Stuart, Meredith Monk...) Scholarship by Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst / Austria for dance studies in NYC 1994/95. Participant in European Choreographic Forum 4 in Dartington/GB organized by Butterfly Effect Network (BEN); member of BEN. 1996 Choreodrome of the Place Theatre/London for a project in collaboration with Annis Joslin/GB.
1999 (concerning the production "EXEO") "THE WIND" - award for the innovative and experimental features given to the body - /"5th PUF Pula International Theatre Festival" (Pula/Croatia).
Performances at international festivals: "Im Puls Tanz" (Vienna), "imagetanz" (dietheater Künstlerhaus, Vienna), "neuer tanz" (WUK, Vienna), "Tanzsprache" (WUK, Vienna), "kostprobe" (Tanztendenz, Munich), "Sprachen des Körpers" (Stuttgart), "4+4 Days in Motion" (Prague), "5th PUF International Theatre Festival" (Pula; Croatia), "Solo Dance 2001" (St.Petersburg) etc.; and "Knitting Factory" (NYC), "Altes Stadthaus" (Berlin, in a cooperation).
Initiated Lab for Performance and Post-Dramatic Acting.