Soft Cowboy at his end...

Ladies and Gentelmen... my life as an art object is coming today to an end! 81 days ago I signed the contract with myself and today at midnight my body comes back officially to its owner - the real person whose legal existance is confirmed by Birth Certificat. If you are in Vienna you're very welcome to join the last night of Soft Cowboy and Things.

More details about the show:
http://www.brut-wien.at/start.php?navid=detail&id=381
http://radekhewelt.blogspot.com/2010/02/things-in-vienna.html
http://radekhewelt.blogspot.com/2010/02/radek-hewelts-soft-cowboy-in-things.html


My rental contract:


RENT-TO-OWN CONTRACT

I. PARTIES:
This contract is entered into on 8th December 2009, by and between RADEK HEWELT as the Owner of the property rented and RADEK as the Renter.
The Owner hereby agrees to rent-to-own the real property described as A BODY.
This rental shall be for a term of 81 days, beginning 8th December 2009 and anding 26th February 2010.

II. DEFINITION OF THE PARTIES:
THE OWNER in this contract is a real person whose legal existance is confirmed by Birth Certificate.
THE RENTER is a physical and artistic image generated for a purpose of an artistic creation.

III. OBJECT OF THE RENTAL:
THE OBJECT of this rental – A BODY – is understood as a real physical body as well as widely assumed identity and personality constituting and belonging to the owner.

IV. RENTAL AGREEMENT:
In the period of contract duration the owner disdains his rights to own his property described as his body and identity. The renter has unlimited rights to despose rented object in any way necessery to fulfil the aims deriving from artistic creation. It might include also modification, transformation, rejection and destruction of an object of the rental.

Radek Hewelt's 'Soft Cowboy' in 'THINGS'

Dear friends,
I was asked by Anat Steinberg to contribute in curated by her exhibition of performances in big second hand shopping paradise Carla mittersteig in Vienna.
For this occasion I've prepared a performances called 'Soft Cowboy'. I'd feel honoured and excited to see you there!
The premiere is on Wednesday 24th February. Details below.



Soft Cowboy / Radek Hewelt

At this point in his life, Radek Hewelt has very little material property and even less personal attachments towards it. As a danced his most important possession is his body. Especially for this event, Radek Hewelt decided to rent his body + soul for artistic purposes. He signed a legal rental contract, and for a period of 81 days he abandoned the ownership of his property (the body + soul mentioned above). He gave the renter (the artistic purpose) the full rights to dispose of the ‘body + soul’ in any way necessary, including its modification (to create a new image), destruction of ‘real self’ and experimenting with exterior guidelines for interiors. In the performance (i.e. the artistic purpose) he will present his new creation.



‘THINGS’

24,25,26 February at 19:00
performances take place at Carla mittersteig,
Mittersteig 10, 1050 Vienna

‘THINGS’ is an exhibition for performances. It reflects upon the relationship between constructing identity and owning property; who we think we are in relation to the things we have.. or should probably get some day.. the people we should be.. the possibilities .. we should have had .. by now..

The artists Otobong Nkanga, Hans Bryssinck and Radek Hewelt are invited to respond with new performance works; from Egyptian mummies (buried with their valuables) through obsessive restitution wars to brand fetishes or the economical / emotional process of buying a house.. The artists will explore the emotional link connecting property owned and/or desired, and identity presentation.

To accentuate the economical aspect of the theme, ‘THINGS’ is happening in a second-hand furniture shop (Carla mittersteig, Mittersteig 10, Wien), which will be open for shopping during the show.

Curated and orchestrated by Anat Stainberg. With contributions from the artists: Hans Bryssinck, Performance. Yasmina Haddad, styling. Radek Hewelt, Performance. Erwin Jans, dramaturgy. Jan Maertens, light. Otobong Nkanga, Performance. Martin Siewert, music. and Ina Ivanceanu, production.

‘THINGS’ is a co-production of Anat Stainberg / ‘Mediated Meetings’ and brut Wien, and is kindly supported by stadt Wien Kultur and the BMU:KK Austria.

THINGS in Vienna

Curated and orchestrated by Anat Steinberg.

With contributions from the artists:

Hans Bryssinck, Performance
Yasmina Haddad, styling
Radek Hewelt, Performance
Erwin Jans, dramaturgy
Jan Maertens, light
Otobong Nkanga, Performance
Martin Siewert, music

‘THINGS’ is a site specific performance. It reflects upon the relationship between identity construction and property. Focusing on the gap between ‘wanting’ and ‘getting’; who we think we are in relation to the things we have.. or should probably get some day.. the people we should be.. the possibilities .. we should have had by now..

'THINGS' is happening in the Carla mittersteig, a second-hand furniture warehouse in Vienna. The Carla Mittersteig is mainly (according to the people who run it) a social project for employment (by Caretas). But it is chosen for the performance because of its arbitrary and sustained collection of ‘things with history and possible future’, reviving many forgotten stories. Site-specific performances are created in relation to a specific location and exist only there. This specific medium offers the viewers ‘pre knowledge’ to start with, which adds layers of information to the reading of the performance. And since a site (in this case a second hand public shop) is real and has a daily function, the performance gets to play in the range between reality and fiction in a fascinating way. To accentuate the economical aspect of the theme the shop will be open for shopping during the show.



Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) an English philosopher and legal theorist developed legislation theory dealing with owned property in the early ninteenth century. He was the first to address property’s important emotional components in his theories, revealing that property represented not only the object or item possessed, but indicated a more intangible relationship between the owner and what was owned.
‘Property is nothing but a basis of expectation; the expectation of deriving certain advantages from a thing which we are said to possess [. . .]. It is not material, it is metaphysical; it is a mere conception of the mind.’

To continue this thought it is interesting to look at the way people (in western cultures) develop relationship with the things they have; the how people belong to their property, how property defines people, puts them in a specific social status, how people live in the promise of the things they potentially should get some day .. Further more Bentham reminds, that it is law alone that enables property to exist, and that from this law people draw a certain expectation also towards future profit or an anticipated inheritance.
The time it takes until the promise has been realized is a very fruitful one for the creation of fantasies, because all you can do is plan, construct an identity.

THINGS, is a research into the way our imaginary and real potentialities code the way of our reality construction. The way fantasy is processed in a brain and re-arranged to an identity with reference to our physical, social and cultural surroundings. The performance will explore the function of property in sparking both individual and collective strategies, and propose ways for these stored ideas to be ‘back-projected’ to the space that hosts them - a second-hand furniture warehouse.



Three artists are invited to participate in this performance; each is coming from different culture and artistic background. All were personally and artistically challenged by the suggestion to explore the link between property and identity; they are asked to look at the ways in which matter influences spirit and contribute their own input, their own ‘take’ on things.

The artists will be provided with research material collected by Anat Stainberg from which they could choose what to focus on. From Egyptian mummies (buried with their valuables) through obsessive restitution wars to brand fetish or the economical / emotional process of buying a house. The artists are asked to create scenes in varies media considering the aspect of their choice.

‘THINGS’ is a co-produced by brut Wien and is kindly supported by stadt Wien Kultur and the BMU:KK Austria.

"Empathy project, vol 1" in Pinkafeld

Empathy project. Vol 1. on the way! The premiere will take place during imagetanz festival in brut in March 2010. We have made a research between drug-addicts on Karlsplatz and now a residency in Pinkafeld/Burgenland...
Project is initiated and led by Magdalena Chowaniec.

Few words about the project:

‘I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.’
Kathy Bates

‘Bodies of drug addicts on Karlsplatz became to me highly inspirational in all their ambivalent existence. The way they inspired me, and the admiration I started to share for their incredible bodily capabilities, occurred very paradoxal - in all its misery becoming almost poetic to my eyes.’
Magdalena Chowaniec

Empathy Project puts the phenomena of empathy in the center of interest and questions the importance of empathy our days, it looks for the possibilities of bridging the social and artistic, abstract on a ‘new’ empathic level. In ‘Vol. I’ reflections upon the outsiders lead to the questions about what's allowed, acceptable and what inappropriate in the society of theatre trying to turn excluded into exclusive. ‘Vol. I’ examines the methods, possibilities and effects of empathizing with the excluded ones through the process based at first on a search for a common empathy in a group. Three human beings turn into a ‘human tabula rasa’. Crossing the border between life and theatre, they rush through the world and melt with different surroundings becoming a part of various landscapes. They look for a ‘homeless esthetics’ in art, taking another point of view onto life – practicing homelessness, performing junkies, researching physicality of the rejected ones.


Participants:
Concept: Magdalena Chowaniec (PL/A)
Research/Creation/Performance: Gabri Einsiedl (A), Magdalena Chowaniec (PL/A), Radek Hewelt (PL/A)
Technical help/Sound: Vladi Tchapanov (BLG/A)

Links:
www.mariamagdalena.cc
www.myspace.com/rockthemob
www.madamlena.blogspot.com

Cooperativa Performativa in TanzQuartier

no territorialization no hierarchy no competition no property or: open source practices for diminish the ego

With: Maria Baroncea (RO), Magdalena Chowaniec (A), Adriana Cubides (A), Florin Flueras (RO), Fanni Futterknecht (A), Eduard Gabia (RO), Claire Granier (A), Radek Hewelt (A), Thomas Kasebacher (A), Alexandra Pirici (RO) and Iuliana Stoianescu (RO).









Cooperative Performativa is a collective that brings together the Romanian artists Maria Baroncea, Florin Flueras, Eduard Gabia, Alexandra Pirici and Iuliana Stoianescu. Starting from the basic idea of open source, they investigate the (power) relationship of art insti-tutions and artists, claims to ownership and copyright interests in one’s own work, the necessity of guidance and direction in a group as well as the product-oriented forms of collaboration, which are based on agreement, negotiation and compromises. The emphasis of their project is the process itself, which – on a largely grassroots democratic basis – creates heterotopias, differences and commonalities in one’s own as well as others’ artistic creation, connected with the attempt not to judge them but precisely to highlight their diversity.







During a one-week encounter with a group of artists working in Vienna, the discursive strategies developed by Cooperativa Performativa will be challenged and tested.










The results of this open working process will be presented on 16 December and are at the same time the curtain-raiser and framework for the discussion of the restructured residency programme that the Tanzquartier Wien together with KulturKontakt Austria and other partners will be continuing in the 2009/10 season.









Links:
http://cooperativaperformativa.blogspot.com/

Alles Gute. Ein Umgang 2009 - All the best. An advent tour 2009

I'm preparing a small showing for this year's "Alles Gute. Ein Umgang 2009 - All the best. An advent tour 2009"
If you want to have a nice evening tour through viennese 7th district's picturesque streets and cultural institution with different artistic ecounters feel very welcome. The organizers have a pleasure to offer you few short artistic programs from the fields of Literature, Music, Dance and Theatre plus to have a nice walk with opportunities to treat yourself with delicious Glühwein (hot spiced wine served specially in the period before and around Christmas).
The advent tour will start at 5 pm at Hauptbücherei am Gürtel (Main Library on Gürtel). Other locations are: Theater Spielraum, Jewish Theater of Austria, Literaturhaus, Medienwerkstatt Wien, Sieben*stern, Fleischerei/Projekt Theater Studio, mica - music austria, Architekturzentrum Wien and TanzQuartier.

I'll present a perforamance created specially for this occasion called: Tonight it’s just a tune. It will close the whole evening programme and it's scheduled at 9:30 pm at TanzQuartier.


Below I enclosed a short information in german. Detailed programme of the whole evening is displayed on the web-site of mica (music information center austria):
http://www.mica.at/mica_aktuell/detail_13488.html



Information in german:

"Alles Gute. Ein Umgang 2009"

Wie schon in den letzten Jahren findet auch heuer am 14. Dezember 2009 der bereits zur Tradition gewordene Adventrundgang „Alles Gute – Ein Umgang“ durch die Gassen des siebenten Bezirks statt. In diversen Kurzprogrammen aus Literatur, Musik, Tanz, Theater rund um den Advent soll das Publikum in einer gemütlichen Weise, auf die besinnliche Zeit eingestimmt werden.

Links:
http://www.mica.at

TONIGHTS TUNE trailer!!!

Dear guests,

I strongly encourage you to watch a trailer of my last piece TONIGHTS TUNE that I have just finished to edit.
TONIGHTS TUNE had its premiere on June 2nd 2009 at WUK in Vienna.
Video-recording was made during our 3rd performance at WUK on June 4th.



TONIGHTS TUNE

Artistic direction: Radek Hewelt

Choreogarphy and performance: Gabri M. Einsiedl, Dominik Grünbühel, Radek Hewelt, Linda Samaraweerova

Light design: Nicole Kropiunik

Special thanks to: Johannes Maile (WUK)

TONIGHTS TUNE could be developed thanks to the kind support of Culture Department of the City of Vienna (Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien - MA7) and WUK


TONIGHTS TUNE is a score composed for 4 instruments. The performers are the musicians and the instruments at the same time. They act on according to the score. It's a concert. They play using their bodies and voices.
It's about singing physicalities and dancing voices. It's about physicality and voice tuning in with each other.

But it's also about pitch of movement,
... a rhythm of the thought,
... a timbre of emotion,
... a loudness of imagination,
... a melody of attention,
... a polyphony of different levels of perception,
... the musicality of the presence.

All in all it's about tuning... again and again.
And it's about particular tune of tonight.


Original video was made by Werner Sohajek / kulturvision
(www.kulturvision.at)

You can view TONIGHTS TUNE trailer also on YouTube under:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGrgPezj1iI