Re-enchantment: Porphyra

by Magdalena Forster and Milena Georgieva

About the re-enchantment of the world, a search for the forces within the body, for synergies between forms of life, for trance and intoxication as an alternative to the materialistic and algorithmically influenced present

The purple seaweed Porphyra moves smoothly and gently in water. This algae is widespread and is used by the artists as a working material while at the same time setting the pace for the performance. Bioplastic, in the form of a soft, flexible substance, was created from a mixture of algae and glycerin. Wrinkled and porous lobes form a flat cast, reminiscent of human skin, a sentient organ that enables us to experience the world, to feel ourselves and others and connect.The artists sing into their own skins and use themselves as resonators. They become instruments, sometimes playing themselves, sometimes others. Fusion and fission alternate.
Text: Luka Jana Berchtold

Magdalena Forster is a performance artist, choreographer and trained healthcare nurse. Her works flirt with the potential of the unfinished and the indefinite, recoding a sense of anchoring and belonging. She turns to personal documentations, kinetic archives and memories. Her performances were supported and presented by Tanzquartier Vienna, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, BRUX Theater Innsbruck, Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunstraum Remise, Sonic Territories Festival Vienna and others. Magdalena Forster was recipient of scholarship programs from ATLAS Program at ImpulsTanz Festival and project funding from the City of Vienna, Innsbruck and Tyrol.

Milena Georgieva is a composer, transdisciplinary artist and performer, born in Sofia and based in Vienna. In her work she focuses on speculative world-making and on weaving intricate networks of meanings, which sprout out of research in sound, landscape theory, queer-feminism, education, practice sharing, body + identity politics. She investigates space as a construct – physical, virtual, public and intimate – from a critical and personal perspective, to synthesize an inter-self-&-site-specific narrative. In her compositions and live performances she seeks a fluid, unbound sense of sound and listening. She transgresses orthodox genre boundaries to activate complex and multidimensional bodies of sound.

Shows at Freies Theater Innsbruck, Tanzquartier Vienna, Kunsthaus Zürich, Technical Museum Vienna, Kunsthalle Vienna, Donaufestival, Wiener Festwochen, ImpulsTanz, Elevate Festival, Unsafe + Sounds, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria, Sofia City Art Gallery, among others. Grants by the City of Vienna (2022-2024) and the State of Austria (2023). Residencies by ImpulsTanz – Turbo (2023), Kulturtankstelle Linz (2017). Nomination for BAZA contemporary art prize (2019).

Re-enchantment is part of the Topic Haunted. Persistence of the Past
Curation: Lewon Heublein
Concept: Elisabeth Falkensteiner (AIL)