In a way, not just our cars but all machines we build are mirrors of our desires and the way we think about ourselves and our relationship with the world. While we appear to make progress, the cars we build become safer, artificially more intelligent, more autonomous and more connected. But most importantly, like us humans, they exponentially grow in number. Motor vehicles are kind of the ultimate stereotypes of a capitalist promise – the promise of a dream come true, with the potential nightmare following directly behind.

Inspired, among other sources, by J.G. Ballards 1973 novel Crash, MOTORA draws on stereotypical dreams of death and desire and tropes such as drive-in cinemas, car sex, car parties, and car washes, mixing them with intimate reflections of a person who subjects their relationship with their car to a crash test.

Marta Navaridas and Alex Deutinger both studied translation, interpreting, and dance. Since 2009, they have developed mostly text-based choreographies. Their pieces, presented at numerous venues in Austria and abroad, include: Your Majesties, Speaking of Which, Queen of Hearts, Pontifex, Octopus, I Would Like to Be a Better Person. Since 2020, Navaridas & Deutinger have developed the performance series Emancipation of Wonder in co-operation with contemporary art museums. 

Manuel Riegler is at home in the full range of sounds. The sound artist, composer, and musician, who lives in Vienna, combines the organic with the digital, manipulates textures of field recordings with synthesis, and thereby creates mystical sound alliances. As a teenager, Riegler started with punk rock, his desire for musical renewal took him to collaborative projects in the fields of performance, dance, theatre, film, and game art.