Magazine

We have been producing audio flyers for specific productions for some time now. Now, for the first time, there is one about the imagetanz 2026 programme! Dramaturges Katrin Brehm and Flori Gugger talk about the performances and provide important information about our accessibility measures. Have a listen now!

The motifs for this year's imagetanz Art Works were created by Robin Lopvet, a visual artist and multimedia photographer based in Paris. He transforms retouching, collages and digital montages into striking visual worlds that combine fashion, web culture and art history. With a great deal of humour, he creates visual fictions that comment on the flood of images in our time.

Artists are now invited to apply for a performance at Kultursommer Wien 2026 at www.kultursommer.wien. All artists, groups or associations with formats suitable for daytime performances on our open-air stages in public spaces or in the gardens of the Houses for Life are eligible to apply. Deadline: 15 January 2026, 15:00

DARUM (Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche) wins the Nestroy Special Prize 2025 for "[EOL]. End of Life" — an immersive VR work on digital legacy, memory and impermanence.

In the 2025/26 season, we will bid farewell to brut nordwest with Kira Kirsch's final programme. That is why photographers Daniela Trost and Susanna Hofer are focusing on the venue and the grounds at Nordwestbahnhof station and staging it artistically in a new way. Their photographs open up spaces for viewing, shift boundaries and allow the interior and exterior to flow into one another.

The biennial festival presents eleven outstanding productions, including five co-productions by brut Wien, and makes Salzburg the Austrian capital of dance from 20 to 22 November.

Composer, sound artist and improviser Angélica Castelló was recently honoured with the City of Vienna’s Ernst Krenek Prize 2025 – one of Vienna’s highest musical awards. From 09 to 26 October, she will be creating live music and composition in ‘every day display’, a performance/installation by Jan Machacek.

Dear artists, I know that many of you are currently preparing applications for the upcoming Kuratorium deadline, and I can imagine that some of you are already envisioning new works in the context of brut. I regret that I will not be able to meet you in person before the September deadline, I hope we see each other soon, though I know it may take some time. I look forward to spending time together, and discovering what we are searching for and standing for. From September 2025, I will be visiting Vienna regularly, and by autumn 2026 I will move there permanently — which will allow us to meet and connect more easily. For now, I want to share some ideas this short letter.

brut Wien is looking for support in office management (30-35 hours) from September 2025. Do you enjoy working in an organised and precise manner and would you like to be part of a team that makes contemporary performative art possible in Vienna? The tasks range from administrative processing in the personnel area to preparing reports and applications to general office organisation. You can expect a varied working environment with flexible working hours and an appreciative team. We look forward to receiving numerous applications!

We can look back on a successful 2024/25 season! Highlights such as the imagetanz festival with 96% occupancy, new impulses for accessibility and a lively international programme characterised our year. On 17 September, we will present the new programme for 2025/26 at brut nordwest – including exciting world premieres!

On 02 June 2025, City Councillor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler announced the appointment of Tomasz Kireńczuk as the future artistic director of brut Wien. The current director of the Santarcangelo Festival will take over from Kira Kirsch from summer 2026 and will continue to develop the successful course of the co-production house of the independent theatre, choreography and performance scene. We look forward to welcoming him to brut!

The decision has been made: The artists for the rehearsal residencies at brut Wien in May and June 2025 have been chosen! In view of the high quality and large number of submissions, the originally planned number of three residencies has been increased to five. In this way, we want to give even more exciting artistic projects space to unfold.

The Academy of Unlearning by kulturen in bewegung is a mentoring programme lasting several months for migrant and BIPoC women* in cultural mediation. It connects mentees with cultural mediators from Viennese institutions, including brut Wien, offers insights into their work and structures and enables the joint development and implementation of a mediation idea in the institution's programme.

Why is resting so difficult? Within the precarious and performance-oriented structures in which we create art, it is particularly difficult to consciously pause. As part of imagetanz, the audio performance ‘Sick Times – Resting and quitting as a resistant practice’ by Angela Alves took place at brut nordwest in March, questioning the usual working structures. You can listen to the content here.

The artwork for season 2024/25 by filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist Nigel Gavus focuses on the performativity of everyday life and coincidences. The ‘Marocats’ series shows street cats in order to visualise their everyday situations and capture them as a contemporary document.

In keeping with their pieces, imagetanz artists have created Spotify playlists to get the audience in the mood for their work or to send them off into the night with the right soundtrack. Björn Säfsten, for example, takes us into the night with songs by James Blake, Little Dragon, Caroline Polacek and Jessica Pratt, while Hyeji Nam takes things from melancholic to electronic with Oklou, Appleblim, Burial and Aphex Twin.

We invite artists in the field of performing arts to apply for three different rehearsal residencies at brut nordwest and studio brut in May and June 2025. The deadline is 24 March 2025.

The artwork for imagetanz 2025 was created by Berlin-based artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez. With her creatures, she creates a timeless and spaceless, post-anthropocentric world without hierarchies. This world eludes our orientation and makes us forget for a moment who we are and why we think we are important.

Theaterverein Wien, as sole shareholder, invites applications for the position of Artistic Director (f/m/d) of brut / Koproduktionshaus Wien GmbH from the 2026/27 season. The position is to be filled as a full-time position from July 2026 and is advertised for a term of four years (possibility of one extension) with a part-time preparatory phase from July 2025. (The detailed job advertisement is only available in German.)

On 12 April 2025, together with Goodnight.at and brut Wien, we invite you to the Goodnight.at student event as part of the closing evening of imagetanz 2025. Students have the opportunity to attend the guest performance Lost Night by Björn Säfsten at brut nordwest, including a short introduction by brut dramaturge Katrin Brehm at 19:30. The evening will be complemented by welcome drinks, goodie bags and the imagetanz closing party – an invitation to experience performance art in a relaxed atmosphere. The raffle will take place on Instagram.

On 10 December, the Austrian Art Prize 2024 of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Services and Sport was awarded to choreographer Doris Uhlich. The prize honours established artists for their internationally recognised Gesamtkunstwerk and is endowed with 20,000 euro. Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts!

On 27 November, the “Förderungspreise” of the City of Vienna were presented at the Vienna City Hall in recognition of the award winners’ artistic and scientific achievements to date and to strengthen their future careers. The prestigious 4,000 euro award for the visual arts went to Tiina Sööt and Dorothea Zeyringer. Congratulations!

Be curious and let yourself be surprised by what theatre in Vienna can do and be. With the KommPAKT! subscription you can attend five shows at five theatres. brut Wien takes part with the dance performance AVA by Karin Pauer on 12 December in the ABO A+ and on 13 December in the ABO A.

Aesthetics and conditions of accessibility; access dramaturgy, creative audio description and tactile guidances, Sign Language and surtitling, designing caring, sustainable structures, breaks, snacks, and rooms for retreat – all this and more was on schedule on March 16th as part of the imagetanz festival.

"HOUSE OF CONSTRUCTS" reimagined the exhibition space as both a literal and metaphorical construction site.

In addition to her work as Artistic Director of brut Wien, Kira Kirsch will take over the management of the Franco-German cultural festival Perspectives in her home town of Saarbrücken from 2025.

The Impulse Festival jury selected eleven outstanding productions from over 500 works for the Showcase 2025 in Mülheim, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Among them is the brut co-production [EOL]. End of Life by DARUM (Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche). Congratulations!