Out Demons, Out!
or…
Aloisia Schinkenmaier’s Descent into Hell
A cooperation between Barbara Kraus and Nadia Lauro
Thursday, 5th November 2009, to Saturday, 7th November 2009, - 20.00 / >>
brut im Künstlerhaus
In her new performance, Barbara Kraus delves into the energies and possibilities
of madness and explores the phenomenon of religious possession. As part of
her search for the ‘Best Evil One’ and based on the Seven Deadly
Sins, she involves her audience in a Hell Casting, by means of which she offers
everyone this once-in-a-lifetime chance to get in touch with his/her own demons
and eventually form friendships with them.
In Shakespeare’s The Tempest it says: “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” This is not the case in Aloisia Schinkenmaier’s world. Her devil can only be in hell, she is quite certain about that. They had cast him out when she was still a child. Now, forty years later, she looks back on the exorcism, asking herself what might have happened to him. As it seems, she actually misses him. Her power as a spiritual medium is in decline, and therefore, she sets out to descend into hell in order to find her devil…
“Hell is other people” – in this case the audience who finds themselves in a film like “space scenario” designed by visual artist, Nadia Lauro, while waiting for a performance by Barbara Kraus to begin. Instead, Aloisia Schinkenmaier appears, an Austrian medium with dissociative identity disorder. Mr. Vucic serves as the Hell Pianist who is supposed to spread good vibrations among the public. He himself is ill tempered and has seen better days. All things considered, this seems less terrifying than the worst nightmares from her childhood - long-ago - when, her vision of hell was a blood-red, burning, tantalised, dark something without end.
“Out Demons, Out!” is the story of an exorcism reversed. It is an attempt at a reclamation and integration of the demonised in the shape of a final, grotesque Danse Macabre, which can be seen as a swan song and parody of life-denying religious fears.
“Go to the places that scare you!”
© Martin Tiefenthaler
Medium
Aloisia Schinkenmaier
Evil Dwarf Ignaz Unterwiener
Hell Pianist Herr Vukic
Performance
>>
Barbara Kraus
Performance Fabian Udulutsch
Performance Renate Leisten
Performance Asmodeus/Cow
Meirav Elchadef
Performance Beelzebub/PigClaudia Heu
Performance Luzifer/Horse Ursula Napravnik
Performance Leviathan/Dog Mike O´Connor
Performance Mammon/Frog Christian Polster
Performance Belphegor/Goat Stefanie Wittmann
Performance Satan/Bear/Chief Martin Leitner
Performance Satan/Bear/Assistant Andrea
Schmidt
Performance
>>
Barbara Kraus
Space/Installation Nadia Lauro
Costumes Wiltrud Derschmidt
Music Fabian Udulutsch
Dramaturgy/dramatic composition Christian
Suchy
Dramaturgy/research Renate Leisten
Artistic consultation Jack Hauser
Video fishy
Graphic IDIIDIIIDesign
Production Martin Leitner & das Schaufenster
a Barbara Kraus Production coproduced by >> brut Wien and supported by >> Wien Kultur
Aloisia Schinkenmaier meets Satan
Medium
Aloisia Schinkenmaier
Satan Bear
Concept
Barbara Kraus
Performance Barbara Kraus und Martin Leitner
Video fishy
Subtitles Werner Rappl