Magical

Choreographer Anne Juren and director Annie Dorsen collaborate on Magical, a solo dance piece performed by Juren, which uses the canon of feminist performance art and the rituals of a magic show to play with illusion, trickery and transformation. Juren and Dorsen work with five iconic and influential performances from 1965-1975: Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen, Cut Piece by Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović’s Freeing the Body, and Interior Scroll and Meat Joy by Carolee Schneemann. Each piece is subjected to a process of inversion, in which the assumptions and ethics of the originals are turned upside down.

Putting these historical feminist practices into the context of a magic show is a radical détournement, which raises questions about the position of the contemporary female artist. Nearly all of the symbols of the cultural left rebellion (from punk rock to drag shows) have been drained of their political power, as they have been, one by one, commodified and folded into a capitalist entertainment framework. The feminist performance art practices of the 60s and 70s have up to now resisted this treatment – they have rather been (at least for the moment) erased, because they couldn't quite be appropriated.

The simultaneity of magic, choreography and performance leads to surprising turns: all deploy the power of metamorphosis, of the body, of the magic object, of the audience’s vision. These transformations affect the spectators and arouse in them the desire to see through the events on the stage. In the process they themselves become the object of a manipulation. Juren devotes herself to the efficacy and secrets of the female body - in an enchantingly spectacular way. (Annie Dorsen, Anne Juren)

Realisation: Annie Dorsen, Anne Juren; Choreography, magic and performance: Anne Juren; Magic training: Steve Cuiffo; Music concept: Christophe Demarthe; Stage: Roland Rauschmeier; Stage assistant: Sebastian Bauer; Light: Bruno Pocheron, Ruth Waldeyer; Technical direction: Bruno Pocheron (Ljubljana); Costume: Miriam Draxl; Production assistant: Ruth Ranacher; Artistic management: Silke Bake; Production: Wiener Tanz- und Kunstbewegung; Co-production: ImPulsTanz - Vienna International Dance Festival.

Supported by: the Cultural Department of Vienna and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, Austrian Cultural Forum, Ljubljana.

This
event is made possible by IINTPA – International Net for Dance and Performance Austria of Tanzquartier Wien with funds by BKA and BMEIA.

Organisation: City of Women; In collaboration with: Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana.

Price: € 7, € 5 (students and pensioners upon submission of an identity card, and self-employed in culture).