2024-02-02 12:47:21
It is still a topic of conversation in the Salzkammergut, the letter columns of the local media are full, and state and city politicians are also dealing with exactly one part of the program from the opening of the Cultural Capital Bad Ischl almost two weeks ago: Doris Uhlich’s “Powder Dance” continues to polarize. The choreographer herself remains calm: “The fact that art triggers controversial opinions is the essence of art,” she commented on the excitement to the APA.
“I received so much positive feedback, including from many people from the Salzkammergut, both after the opening and by email, etc. Many people were touched and encouraged and did not feel provoked in any way,” said herself in the Capital of Culture region born performer in a written statement. “If you approach my work with an open eye, you see naked people who deal with their bodies without sexualized attributions, you feel the depth and mindfulness with which I choreograph. I have been working with people of different biographies and physical bodies for many years Inscriptions and show the potential of nudity beyond simple eroticization and provocation.”
Both had led to a number of reactions: that Uhlich and her dancers were naked in her performance – and that the unclothed bodies did not correspond to classic ideals of beauty. “I think of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, how they were attacked – also because of the depiction of naked bodies. And now they are being celebrated. We should learn from history. I am an artist and I make art that promotes respect and diversity diversity of bodies,” emphasizes Uhlich.
Uhlich’s new work “Inokay. An exhilarating ensemble dance piece” will be premiered tomorrow, Saturday, at the Munich Kammerspiele. “Doris invites a group of the acting ensemble to surrender to the energy of permanent change: nothing stays the same, everything becomes different,” says the announcement. “The set design and costumes are also largely made from transformed materials from the fund. The piece creates something new in many ways – a new (dis)order on the stage right through to the audience. How does it feel to reassemble a society?”
Capital of Culture director Elisabeth Schweeger also tries to put things into perspective in an interview with the APA: “There is tons of feedback that is extremely positive. There are mostly positive reactions in the international and national press to an opening program that included 40, 45 events. ” She admits that she did not expect that the textile-free performance would not only stir up a lot of powder, but also so much dust with such intensity. “I thought that it would be talked about – but given the fact that in every church, throughout the entire history of art, you are confronted with depictions of nudity, I’m surprised that some people are now so upset about it.”
She finds it “interesting that theater can still polarize and trigger this excitement. But that’s not a problem for me at all. Art is something that should stimulate discussion. Art shouldn’t just entertain or comfort. I think it’s good that Art provokes reactions.” She isn’t really surprised that this also happened at a political level. “We are in the midst of an election campaign. That could explain some of the political reactions.”
Contemporary art is currently being debated not only in Bad Ischl. An art installation by Gottfried Helnwein in Gmunden is also apparently polarizing. On the initiative of the Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden and the municipality, he covered the town hall and the city theater with oversized pictures. “Memory”, “The Smile” and “The Disasters of War” show children – once kissing, once covered in blood and once in a Nazi uniform. On Friday, the city of Gmunden felt compelled to defend the art event in view of negative reactions.
The artist “openly and unsparingly addresses topics that we as humans tend to suppress,” said Mayor Stefan Krapf and local councilor Andreas Hecht (both ÖVP) in a broadcast. “If you look at the social and political developments in Austria honestly and objectively, you must clearly recognize that radicalism, various forms of extremism, subtle violence and intolerance occupy a very broad and now worrying space.” Helnwein “consciously takes us out of the superficial idyll” and shows “where hate, division and violence can lead and that children are also affected by this. His works are memorials, an emphatic sign against violence, war, aggression and perfidious instrumentalization”, it says.
Could such debates ultimately be evidence that the residents of the Salzkammergut are not as cosmopolitan as was repeatedly emphasized in the application for the Capital of Culture region? “The region is open. It always has been,” says Schweeger, rejecting this assumption. “Hubert von Goisern, Tom Neuwirth aka Conchita and Doris Uhlich come from here. But it’s also true that Goisern left here 20 years ago and Tom Neuwirth also became the artist he is today not in Bad Mitterndorf but elsewhere is also appreciated at home.”
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