The evening is a mixture of traditional dance floor, games and party. Estonian, Norwegian, Austrian and Italian traditional music and dances meet contemporary forms. It is about elements and rules of celebration as well as playful spontaneous moments and stereotypes. Because the art and power of celebration lies in the balance between the rules that define the exact sequence of festivities and free, spontaneous, intuitive forms of expression that express joy and affection among the revellers, high spirits, but also sadness and anger. It is about European commonalities of celebration as well as differences, about personal feelings of home and global humanity. Whether traditional or artistic – the planned meets the spontaneous, choreography meets the free dance floor. The audience is invited to take part in games, competitions, rhythmic and musical elements, traditional dances and funny movements. Forms of celebration from the Arctic, Estonia and Austria are used that are no longer common today. Using material from archival sources, they will be reconstructed and embedded in contemporary social contexts to inspire new developments – a Future of Folkart.
Under the motto “The Art and Power of Celebration”, participants and visitors will experience a culture of togetherness and cultural affiliations from different perspectives. The aim of “Ausdrahn – Village Party & Volxfest” is to incorporate diversity as well as international and intersectional perspectives into regional folk cultural forms of expression. In the artistic process, questions about origin and developments in social, contemporary and international discourses are answered differently than in conventional settings.
Given norms of celebration are taken up, questioned and combined with new, diverse forms of expression. These hybrid forms are intended to contribute to a better understanding of different people, reduce fear of change and open up a personal approach to celebrating through body awareness.
Participating artists:
Farah Deen, Irene Egger (artistic research), Matteo Haitzmann, Sigurd-Johan Heide, Tone Ingvaldsen, Johanna- Adele Jüssi, Simon Mayer, Ole Nilssen, Espen Nordheim, Markus Prieth, Patric Redl, Hannah Shakti-Bühler, Mario* Sinnhofer, Irma-Maria Troy, Hannah Maria Wimmer
Village Party meets Volxfest is a joint project by Art in Motion/Simon Mayer, Kartellet / Sigurd-Johan Heide, Johanna-Adele Jüssi Estonia and Austrian Folk Music and Song Society / Irene Egger.
More about the project at salzkammergut-2024.at