Salon Souterrain: Nowtopia

Künstlerische Leitung: Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe
Mit: Nicolas Freytag, Anna Vasof, Alex Franz Zehetbauer, Stefano D’Alessio, Stina Fors, Mzamo Nondlwana, Emily Stewart, Karin Cheng aka Kamehameharin

2050. Wien. Wo stehen wir? Ist es wirklich utopisch zu hoffen, dass wir die Fakten endlich ernst nehmen und Maßnahmen ergreifen? Der Aufstieg nationalistischer Parteien in Europa und die Rückkehr reaktionärer Figuren wie Trump zeigen eine eklatante Missachtung der Klimakrise und eine Fixierung auf kurzfristige Strategien. In diesem Klima der Unsicherheit und Polarisierung wird es umso dringlicher, alternative Wege zu denken. Welche Vorstellungen können uns helfen, bessere Zukünfte zu entwerfen? Welche individuellen oder kollektiven Geschichten inspirieren unsere Visionen? Salon Souterrain: Nowtopia rückt die Kunst ins Zentrum der Debatte und schafft einen Raum, um Perspektiven zu erweitern und drängende Fragen neu zu verhandeln. 

Salon Souterrain

Der Salon Souterrain, initiiert von der Künstlerin Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe, ist eine Veranstaltungsreihe, die soziale Fragen in einem künstlerischen Format verhandelt. Der Projektraum wird zu einem offenen Raum, der zugleich Bühne, Ausstellung und Treffpunkt ist.
Durch Diskussionen, Performances, Musik und künstlerische Experimente entstehen neue Verbindungen und Perspektiven. Der Salon schafft nicht nur soziale Begegnungen, sondern hinterfragt auch Themen wie Territorialität, Zugehörigkeit und Dezentralisierung von Kunst und Kultur. Er ist ein Ort, an dem künstlerische Fiktion Grenzen öffnet – symbolisch und real.

artistic direction: Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe
discussion/artists: Nicolas Freytag, Anna Vasof
performance/music: Alex Franz Zehetbauer 
performance/light & sound: Stefano D’Alessio
performance/voice: Stina Fors
performance/dance: Mzamo Nondlwana
experimental violine: Emily Stewart 
DJ: Karin Cheng aka Kamehameharin

team: Indra Jäger (production), Benoît Jouan (research), François Ntambue Tambwe (web), David Pujadas Bosch (documentation)

Kindly supported by Stadt Wien MA7
Salon Souterrain by Dig Up Productions
In cooperation with WUK performing arts / Projektraum, Château Rouge and AIL/Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab 

about

Born in 1971 in Kinshasa (DRC), Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe grew up in France and pursued artistic studies. In 1998, she obtained the “Diplôme National d’Expression Plastique”, for her work of sculpture, at the School of Fine Arts in Tourcoing, France. As an artist, choreographer and stage director, she works with a variety of forms of writing: performance, choreography, film, interactive and generative, as well as different dramaturgies and spaces such as installations and stages. She is interested in the emergence of new forms of otherness, and the singular relationships and languages they give rise to. What do they reveal about our humanity, and how do they challenge the notion of anthropocentrism? Her projects are transdisciplinary and collective, and seek to invent shared research spaces between performance art and the social sciences. 
www.elitambwe.com/de/dig-up-productions-de
www.chateaurouge.at

Karin Cheng aka Kamehameharin flows in-between the worlds of dance and music. Shaped by the reality of her own life, she is fascinated by transcultural stories, transformative narratives and embodied empowerment strategies. These multi-layered perspectives are an integral part of her current artistic practice. Karin enjoys sparking connection with intuitive ease—her dialogues unfold with quiet intention and flow. Guided by a deep affection for music & movement, Kamehameharin shares this synergy through her selection.

Stefano D’Alessio was born in Trieste (Italy) in the late 80s, where he grew up swimming in salty water, playing in metal bands, and enjoying local wine near the Slovenian border. For over a decade, he has worked as a media artist, director, performer, music composer, and educator. His work includes audio-visual compositions, interactive performances, and media installations, which are regularly presented at international festivals. He also conducts workshops and teaches at various European universities, including the University of Applied Arts Vienna, IUAV University of Venice, Kunst University Linz, and Hyper Island Stockholm. His research focuses on internet-induced societal issues and examines how the web and its derivatives influence human behavior and the body. His practice centers on communicative human-machine interaction, developing interactive audio/visual instruments that are expressive for performers while remaining comprehensible and meaningful for audiences. His pieces integrate the human body as an active element in close interaction with technology, where sound, light, visuals, and physicality become equal performing partners. Stefano holds a BA in Visual and Performing Arts from IUAV University of Venice and a Magister degree in Transmedia Art under Brigitte Kowanz at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In 2021, he was awarded the Startstipendium for Media Arts by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Art and Culture. He currently exists and creates in Vienna, Austria.

Stina Fors (b.1989, SE) With a certain taste for the absurd and strange, Stina Fors crafts unique, once-in-a-lifetime performances. As a self- taught drummer and shocking vocalist, Fors tours with her one-woman-punk-band, Stina Force, a band that must be experienced live—characterized by spontaneity—no two performances are alike. Extended ventriloquism and overtone screams can both be seen and heard in her recent work, "A Mouthful of Tongues," - a magic show where the voice appears detached from the performer's body. Her work is packed with tension, humor, and raw power. Additionally, she imparts her knowledge, teaching techniques to produce extreme voices like death growls without vocal damage. Stina studied choreography at the SNDO school for new dance development in Amsterdam, currently residing in Vienna, Austria.

Nicolas Freytag is a Swiss painter who explores questions of tradition in the history of art in resonance with new forms of image production. Gathering analogies and distortions, whether in the posture of a figure or the unfolding of a landscape, he brings layers of miscellaneous sources and media on a semi-transparent polyester film. The heterotopic spaces he paints depict territories in tension with the hors-champ. Transformation processes disrupting their environment, yet falsely quieted down by their suspension. https://www.nicolasfreytag.com

Mzamo Nondlwana a queer non-binary performing artist originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Their work focuses on marginalized bodies and an attempt to subvert colonial fantasy. In 2006 they completed their dance education at MID (South Africa) and in 2014 SEAD (Austria). They worked with Michikazu Matsume, Doris Uhlich, Magdalena Chowaniec, Needcompany and Michael Turinsky. They are also one half of a dj collective Bicha Boo which is an audio-visual performative collective since 2017.

Emily Stewart, born in London and raised in Costa Rica, is a classically and jazz trained violinist who has lived in Vienna, Austria since 2002. From an early age she explored improvisation and various other musical styles, which has made her a much sought-after artist, especially in experimental and crossover projects and as a studio musician. She has performed with Soap&Skin, Violetta Parisini, the Swedish jazz pianist Jan Lundgren and others at several festivals and venues throughout Europe. As a theatre musician, she has been collaborating with the American performance group Saint Genet since 2016, was engaged as a stage musician in various productions at the Vienna Burgtheater from the 2017/2018 season to the 2020/2021 season, and was involved in Jacqueline Kornmüller's Ganymed in Power (2020/2021) and Ganymed Bridge (2023) productions at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. In 2021 she composed the soundtrack for Sebastian Braunei's film 1 Verabredung im Herbst (2021), as well as the theatre music for Fritzi Wartenberg's production of The Writer at the Berliner Ensemble (2022/2023). Her first album The Anatomy of Melancholy was released in 2020 on the Viennese label col legno music.
Collaboration with a.o.: Soap&Skin, Jan Lundgren, Gary Husband, Michael Mantler, Wolfgang Puschnig, Asja Valcic, Bohatsch&Skrepek&Stewart, Matthias Jakisic, Lukas Lauermann, Koehne Quartet, Vienna Improvisers Orchestra, Velvet Elevator & Die Strottern, Golnar Shahyar, Klaus Paier, Peter Havlicek, Mahan Mirarab's Acoustic Diaries, Jim Rotondi, Nenad Vasilic, Jazzwerkstatt Wien, OnQ Ensemble, Tobias Vedovelli, Leonhard Skorupa, Clemens Wenger, Lukas Kranzelbinder, Hannes Löschel, André Heller, Belle and Sebastian, OSKA, Violetta Parisini, Studio Dan, Neuschnee, Iris Electrum, Philipp Kienberger Quintett, Studio Dan, Johanna Orisini-Rosenberg, God's Entertainment, Saint Genet, Wilfried, Little Big Sea, Hearts Hearts, Rambo Rambo Rambo, Yasmo und die Klangkantine, Felix Kramer, Franui and Nico and the Navigators, Florianer Tanzlgeiga, Rosa Sánchez. ..emily-stewart.com

Anna Vasof is an architect, media, and time-based artist. She studied architecture at the University of Thessaly (2010) in Greece and Transmedia Art (2014) at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 2004 her videos and short movies have been presented in several festivals, some winning distinctions. In 2020, she finished her Ph.D. thesis about a cinematographic technique she developed titled “Non Stop Stop Motion”. She is now working on designing and building innovative mechanisms for producing critical videos, films, actions, and installations. https://annavasof.net

Alex Franz Zehetbauer (b. 1990, Brooklyn) is a performance artist and vocalist working at the intersection of performance, music, visual arts and choreography. In his performances, he beguiles with sophisticated melodies, strange vocal escapades and unexpected twists. Critics have called him: a swamp monster, an angel, and a red-eyed demon. He studied vocal performance, choreography, acting and composition at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the International Theater Workshop in Amsterdam.
Recent performances of his work include: Austrian Fashion Awards, Vienna (2024), Vienna Art Week, Austria (2024); Steirische Herbst, Graz, Austria (2024); C-Mine, Genk, Belgium (2024); Austrian Pavillion / Gwangju Bienniale, South Korea (2024); Warehouse9, Copenhagen, Denmark (2024); Gessneralle Zürich, Switzerland (2024). www.alexfranzzehetbauer.com