The Performance Agency
Curator

Artists
Caique Tizzi, Esben Weile Kjaer

HARDCORE FREEDOM & The First Supper

For the 2021 edition of Curated by, upon invitation of Zeller von Almsick, The Performance Agency is pleased to announce a twofold program of excesses.

HARDCORE FREEDOM, by Esben Weile Kjaer (*1992, Denmark) The scenery of HARDCORE FREEDOM is activated twice a day on the opening weekend: Seven performers shift, erect and demolish elements over the course of an immersive score carried by a frenzied soundscape, oscillating between rebellion and depression. The audience becomes part of this hybrid space at the crossroads of nightclub, art institution, stage and fashion boutique. Esben Weile Kjær unravels popular culture’s commercial narratives of youth and freedom, which became identity markers for a whole generation of millenials. With strategies borrowed from the experience economy, HARDCORE FREEDOM casts an inquisitive and critical eye on its ideals: anxiety, nostalgia, sampling of symbols, digital self-invention and cultural consumption. The project marks the first presentation of Esben Weile Kjær’s work in Austria. Please bring drinks with you.

The First Supper, Caique Tizzi (*1984, Brazil) On both days, the performances are followed by a staged dinner conceived by artist Caique Tizzi. The First Supper explores the cosmogonies of food and the potential performativity of a meal within a shared space of experience. Cosmogony stands for the origin —the creation of the gods and of the universe, the storytelling of how the world came into existence. Tizzi picked amongst the narratives of different founding myths elements related to the consumption of food and divided his dinner into four chapters and courses. Every course is accompanied by the reading of a text or a song, guiding the guests through an ever-changing present.