Donaufestival: The Expulsion into Paradise

April 6, 2012 / festivals, local news

Krems/Austria: April 28 – May 5, 2012.
This year’s donaufestival will take place between April 28 and May 5 in Krems (Austria) under the title “The
Expulsion into Paradise”.

Detailed programme: www.donaufestival.at.

The Expulsion into Paradise
The story of the naked man, the naked woman, the serpent, and eating the forbidden fruit is generally
considered to be the event that marks the beginning of the history of culture, or better said, of Western
civilisation. Today, we must admit that the “loss of innocence” and the subsequent “cultivation” of
mankind should no longer be seen oh so positively. Our yearning for this magnificent nudist colony and an
innocence of culture and civilisation is intensifying. But where is the paradise of our future? Definitely not
in the linear march along the “occidental road” to perdition, but also not in a bourgeois, naïve recoil into a
hole in the ground. Let’s chart the way together with our artists down the winding paths into their
paradises…

CocoRosie
CocoRosie, the creation goddesses of artificial wonder worlds, have forged a top-class megaproject: Bianca
& Sierra Casady present their “popera” debut “Soul Life”, the dance performance “Nightshift”, the musicfilm
project “Harmless Monster”, the exhibition “Sunday” by Jean-Marc Ruellan, as well as the CocoRosie
All-Stars Concert “The Eighth Night” with countless participants. High-calibre guests will invigorate the
wonderland in peculiar pairings: Antony Hegarty with the queer hip-hopper Sissy Nobby, Laurie Anderson
with Light Asylum, or Scout Niblett with Lapdog of Satan – an in individual concerts: Ariel Pink’s Haunted
Graffiti, Chairlift, Atlas Sound, or Oneohtrix Point Never!

Hotel Modern
The creation of wondrous paradises at the crossroads of installation, media art, live film, figurine theatre,
and performance is the trademark of the Dutch collective Hotel Modern. The Stadtsaal transforms into a
sprawling miniature world, into a live film studio for the production of intermedial comedy between
apocalypse, sci-fi, and shrimp paradise!

John Bock
This year, one of the most important artists of younger generations will further enhance the collaboration
with the Kunsthalle Krems that began in 2009. In a performative media installation specially designed for
the central hall, John Bock fuses a number of his film and video works, creating a whimsical world in the
intermedial interplay.

Music
Following the CocoRosie wonderland on the first weekend with numerous guests, from Antony Hegarty to
Ariel Pink, an acoustic paradise between instrumental and electronic extremes will synthesise on the
second: Squarepusher and Pantha DuPrince encircled by a number of Austrian debuts such as Chris
Cunningham, The Field, Emika, or Walls. The collaboration between Felix Kubin and artist Martha Colburn
promises anarchic audiovisual chaos, and Lustmord will celebrate one of their rare black masses. Bohren &
The Club of Gore will make time stand still, Of Montreal invite to an experimental costume-pop opera,
Seefeel deconstruct sound whereas Sebastien Tellier puts it back together. Following the show by industrial
icon Genesis P-Orridge, Hunx & His Punx and the Lesbians on Ecstasy will charge their sound with a good
shot of queerness in their performance “The End of Feminism”.

Performance
In addition to the intermedial wonder worlds of the performance group Hotel Modern, in which shrimps
reveal the absurdity of our existence and we experience a sentimental flashback of the end of the world,
the performative installation by John Bock, and the CocoRosie excursions into music and dance theatre,
God’s Entertainment seduces us on a touristic fake tour through the Wachau, machina eX stage a computer
game in lifelike graphics and invite us to save the world, Sabine Marte introduces her new audiovisual
wonder world, DANS.KIAS squat the Stadtpark with a metal-body performance, Cie. Agar Agar deconstruct
choreography, and Djana Covic calls for “the end of feminism as we know it” with the final female wrestling
battle.

All Artists
The CocoRosie Project (28.04.-30.04., music/performance/film):
Sierra Casady: Soul Life (28.-29.04.) | Bianca Casady: Nightshift (29.-30.04.) | CocoRosie: Harmless
Monster (28.04.) | CocoRosie: Die Achte Nacht (30.04.) | Laurie Anderson with Light Asylum
(28.04.) | Rhys Chatham with Valgeir Sigurdsson (28.04.)| Rajasthan Roots with Diane Cluck (28.04)
| Sissy Nobby special guest Antony (28.04.) | Scout Niblett with Lapdog of Satan (30.04.) |
Busdriver with Nomi Ruiz (30.04.)

performance/theatre:
Hotel Modern Shrimp Tales (28.-30.04.) | Hotel Modern Seaplane Mothership (03.-04.05.) | God’s
Entertainment Wachau International Europe in 2 hours (28.04.-05.05.) | Invisible Playground
Street Games (28.-30.04.) | machina eX 15.000 Gray (29.04.-05.05.) machina eX 15.000 Gray
(29.04.-05.05.) | DANS.KIAS body in an metal structure (03.-05.05.) | Sabine Marte Hotel Totale
(03.-04.05.) | Cie. Agar Agar Four Are Better Than One (04.-05.05.) | Jeremy Wade Fountain
(05.05.) | Dolce After Ghana The End of Feminism (as we knew it) (05.05.)

art/installation:
John Bock (28.04.-05.05.) | Jean Marc Ruellan: Sunday (28.04.-05.05.) | Hans Peter Kuhn: Aus der
Tiefe (28.04.-05.05.) | Dan Perjovschi (28.04.-05.05.) | Michael Strasser: Sites of Desire (28.04.-
05.05.) | Wunder Kunst, Wissenschaft und Religion (28.04.-05.05.) | Werner Schrödl: Cadence
Irregular (28.04.-05.05.) | Harun Farocki: All The Right Pictures (28.04.-05.05.) 29

photos and press information: http://www.donaufestival.at/press-en/fotos-presstext
tickets and hotline: ++43 (0)2732 90 80 33; tickets@noe-festival.at

venues:
Messegelände und Stadtsaal, Utzstraße 12 (Festivalzentrum);
Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche, Minoritenplatz 5;
Kunsthalle Krems, Franz-Zeller-Platz 3; Factory, Steiner Landstraße 3;
Forum Frohner, Minoritenplatz 4; Kino im Kesselhaus, Dr. Karl Dorrek Straße 30;
All: A-3500 Krems a.d. Donau

[Source: Official Press Release]