Handle with care feat. Huggy Bears Part 1 & 2
with Katarína Krupicková & Moa Kilz and Els van Houtert
Huggy Bears turns 10! To celebrate the birthday of this unique support programme, imagetanz presents a sample of Vienna’s young performance scene. In this special edition of brut’s Handle with Care series feat. Huggy Bears, Katarína Krupičková & Moa Kilz and Els van Houtert allow exclusive glimpses into their projects and stages of creation.
Katarína Krupičková & Moa Kilz – To Beauty Behold
To Beauty Behold addresses grief, loss and acceptance. In this moving performance, Katarína Krupičková embarks on a journey of self-search following the death of a close childhood friend in their home country. Using art, dance, music, spoken word and moments of celebration, Krupičkova tries to find a language to understand grief. Movement and body become symbols of remembering both a time lost and its healing effect.
Katarína Krupičková (she/they) is a dancer from Slovakia who studied at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz and is currently based in Vienna. They have collaborated as a dancer with artists such as Hannes Langolf, Johannes Wieland, Ryan Mason, Stella Zannou, Jianan Qu and numerous others. Since moving to Austria, they have appeared at various festivals, including ‘The non-fungible body?’ at OK – Centre for Contemporary Art in Linz, curated by Freda Fiala and River Lin (2022), and the Camping Asia Festival in Taipei (2023). In Katarína Krupičkova’s own pieces, they combine spoken word, movement and various media into a collaborative performance fusing a number of different disciplines and art forms.
Moa Kilz (she/they) is a musician and artist from Austria currently based in Vienna and Linz. In recent years, they have invested their great passion for live music in co-creating multiple dance performances, two of them being JENNY and pick the flowers. Being in several different bands, such as Brigött*innen and their own project Moa Kilz, and having gathered on-stage experience from a young age, Moa contributes a highly individual perspective as an artist. Their work connects to audiences through its tender, sensitive approach to text and voice which intensifies the emotional effect of each performance. In this project, Moa Kilz is responsible for music and sound design.
Info
In English and Slovak
Content notes
This performance addresses death and loss.
Credits
Concept & performance Katarína Krupičková Music & sound design Moa Kilz
A co-production by Bears in the Park and imagetanz 2026/brut Wien.
Els van Houtert – Bathroom as Stage – Stage as Bathroom
In Bathroom as Stage – Stage as Bathroom, Els van Houtert examines how intimate, vulnerable bathroom rituals change when performed in front of an audience. Repurposing water, ceramics, mirrors, sound and movement, routine bathroom moves are translated into a shared experience. The result can be described as a sensual installation performance in which the highly private space that is one’s home becomes refuge and stage at the same time. Starting with the history of the bathroom as a gender-coded, ethically charged and usually hidden space in the domestic realm, the performance explores its role as a space where the concept of a public image can be simultaneously dissolved and emphasised.
Els van Houtert (she/her) is a multidisciplinary performance artist and artistic researcher based in Vienna whose work involves embodied experience, ceramics, drawing, installation and writing. She holds a master’s degree in art and science from the Vienna University of Applied Art (2024) and has an academic background in anthropology and religious science. Her practice focuses on physical experiences and encounters with materials of daily life. Through a micro-phenomenological lens, Els van Houtert explores the subtle sensory relationships between a person and others as well as the material world surrounding those other. She treats the body as a primary place of exploration and creates performance pieces and collaborations that are often interactive and call for collective ritualisation and reflection.
Info
In English
Content notes
The performance features nudity.
Credits
Concept & performance Els van Houtert
A co-production by Bears in the Park and imagetanz 2026/brut Wien.
Since 2016, Huggy Bears has been a pillar of innovative performance art, supporting emerging artists in Vienna. Each year, the supporting programme provides three or four individual artists or art collectives with comprehensive support in areas from production to administration, equipment and dramaturgy. In a series of different presentation formats as well as regular feedback sessions within the group, the young artists’ projects develop into very special pieces. At the end of the supporting programme, the mentees get to present their performance projects for the first time. The programme is operated by the initiative Bears in the Park seated in Vienna’s 11th district and run by Philippe Riéra and Charlotte Bastam, one of the city’s ‘cultural anchor centres.’ Bears in the Park is dedicated to supporting Vienna’s independent performance scene and has become an important place to work, connect and join forces in creativity. In addition to the Huggy Bears programme, the initiative provides rehearsal spaces free of charge in its dance studios and awards residencies for the sound studio as well as for an artist studio to be used by visual artists. bearsinthepark.org @bearsinthe.park
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