Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild

trace my layers, thrust your guts

studio brut
Performance / Dance World premiere in English | Duration: 60 minutes
{Sound sculptures} {Vibration} {Choreographic layers}

Crisis as movement: Rocks push, sound quivers, bodies break. With trace my layers, thrust your guts, performance duo Lens Kühleitner and Olivia Hild create a literally vibrant common event out of dance, sound, geology, inner and outer landscapes.

, © Ju Aichinger

Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild – trace my layers, thrust your guts

, © Ju Aichinger

Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild – trace my layers, thrust your guts

, © Ju Aichinger

Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild – trace my layers, thrust your guts

, © Hanna Fasching

Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild – trace my layers, thrust your guts

Choreographic formations soar amidst sound sculptures and dulcimer spheres, resembling the geological process of thrusting, this powerful movement of earth pushing upwards, a force that causes falling and faulting. In the face of the climate crisis, performers Lens Kühleitner, also known as Lan Rex, and Olivia Hild use thrusting as a performative strategy to explore emotional as well as geological layers. trace my layers, thrust your guts is inspired by movements in alpine soil: faulting, pushing, gliding, squeezing, breaking, flowing. Matter is active here. Through dance and sound the artists follow vibration as a shared source. Sculptural instruments outline natural rock formations, resounding deeply and clanging loudly as Olivia Hild and Lens Kühleitner interact with these sound sculptures by plucking, pushing and gliding. The choreography lies layered in the space like rocks: One layer porously merges into the next. Bodies rub against each other, inwardly, into the space and resisting the pressure until something breaks open.

 

Lens Kühleitner lives in Vienna. As a performance artist and musician, they work with sound, composition and movement in theatre, dance and performance. In addition to completing residencies with Olivia Hild at Im_flieger, Dansverkstæðið Reykjavík and ImPulsTanz (TURBO Research Residencies), they worked with Mzamo Nondlwana, Lau Lukkarila & Luca Bonamore, Oneka von Schrader, Sunggu Hong & So Young Park, Shabnam Chamani, Claire Lefèvre and Veza Fernández at Tanzquartier Wien, ImPulsTanz, Kosmos Theater, Schauspielhaus Wien, the Slovak National Theatre, brut Wien, Köttinspektionen Dans and Tdk Zurich. As Lan Rex, Lens Kühleitner has published three EPs at Tender Matter and an album with Manu Mayr as TEARING (Ventil Records). Lens Kühleitner is part of Pink Noise and was a member of the PARASOL Dance Company in 2023.

Olivia Hild is an artist who works in the fields of contemporary choreography, performance, installation, dance and art education. Her work has been presented, among others, at WUK performing arts, BRUX Innsbruck, Theater Odeon/Im Spitzer, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, Sonic Territories and the Vienna MuseumsQuartier. She is currently creating trace my layers, thrust your guts with Lens Kühleitner. This collaboration brought them residencies at Im_flieger, Dansverkstæðið Reykjavík and ImPulsTanz (TURBO Research Residencies). On a regular basis, Olivia Hild works as a choreographer for theatre productions. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the dance department at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and an MFA degree in visual art from the Jerusalem Bezalel Academy. Olivia Hild is the artistic director of the Festspielhaus St. Pölten’s youth dance company.

Credits

Artistic direction, performance & sound Lens Kühleitner, Olivia Hild Dramaturgy Oneka von Schrader Sound design & music Lens Kühleitner, Olivia Hild, TEARING Sound sculpture concept Lens Kühleitner, Olivia Hild, Julia Belova Sculptures Julia Belova Costume design Studio Hassan Trailer & floor design Ju Aichinger Video documentation İpek Hamzaoğlu Production management Maria Herold Lighting design Yasemin Duru Outside Eyes Asher O’Gorman, Martina De Dominicis, Bita Bell

A co-production by Olivia Hild & Lens Kühleitner and brut Wien in co-operation with Honig – Verein für zeitgenössische Choreografie, Performance und Sound.

Funded by the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs (MA7).

With support from the ImPulsTanz festival’s TURBO Research Residency, im_flieger Wien, Dansverkstæðið Reykjavík, Culture Moves Europe and Bildrecht.

Dates & Tickets

October 2025

Wed. 15.10.2025, 19:00
€ 22/€ 18/€ 14
    
Tickets

Thu. 16.10.2025, 19:00
€ 22/€ 18/€ 14 * Aperitivo at 18:30 & artist talk after the performance
    
Tickets

Fri. 17.10.2025, 19:00
€ 22/€ 18/€ 14
    
Tickets

Sat. 18.10.2025, 19:00
€ 22/€ 18/€ 14
    
Tickets

studio brut
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
not accessible

Info

On Thu. 16.10., there will be an Aperitivo at 18:30 and an artist talk after the performance.

 

Content notes

The audience is free to move around the space. The performance uses haze and loud sound.

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