Queer feminism, comedy and catharsis: For their dance performance Turning Point, Mzamo Nondlwana invites dancer Evandro Pedroni, sound artist Lens Kühleitner, and video artist Maanila Santos de Moraes to share their queer-feminist takes on personal experiences of arrival and leaving on stage.

Turning Point employs absurdity through re-enactment, parody, and outrageous exaggeration as emancipatory survival strategies. Between arrival and departure, thoroughly explored rhythm, and catharsis as a means of liberation from emotional turmoil, classic soap operas and contemporary queer culture become evident as sources of inspiration.

Mzamo Nondlwana is a queer, non-binary performance artist from Johannesburg, South Africa, who lives in Vienna. Their work focuses on marginalised bodies and attempts to subvert colonial fantasies. Following their dance training at MID in South Africa and SEAD in Austria, Mzamo Nondlwana worked with Michikazu Matsune, Doris Uhlich, Magdalena Chowaniec, the Needcompany, and Michael Turinsky and is part of the Bicha Boo Collective active since 2017.

Evandro Pedroni is Brazilian performer, dancer, and choreographer who lives in Vienna. He has performed in pieces by Cocoon Dance, Akemi Takeya, Elisabeth Tambwe, Costas Kekis and others. Evandro Pedroni’s creations and co-operations have been presented at festivals such as ImPulsTanz, imagetanz, Kultursommer Wien, PAD – Performance Art Depot, Germany, and FAKI 18, Croatia, and within other frameworks such as Tanzzentrale Nürnberg, Wien Kultur, WUK, brut Wien, Im_flieger, and Bears in the Park Art Place as well as at HochX Theater, Live Art, and EinTanzHaus, all in Germany.

Lens Kühleitner is a non-binary performance artist and musician who lives in Vienna and works with sound, video, and movement, combining pop music with techno and mix resulting thoughts into a soft, melodious mess. They have made appearances, some of them as Lan Rex, at Popfest Wien, HYPERREALITY, brut Wien, YOUKI Festival, and ImPulsTanz. They have also published two EPs (Absatz1, C) with Tender Matter and the album All Sides Find Insides with Ventil Records in collaboration with the TEARING duo. Lens Kühleitner has contributed sound and performances at Wienwoche, STERRRN Festival Graz, Kultursommer Wien, YUP Osnabrück, Belvedere 21, Britney X Festival Cologne, Theater der Künste Zurich as well as projects at Tanzquartier Wien, Kosmos Theater, and Tonspur MuseumsQuartier. In 2023, they were part of Tanzquartier Wien’s PARASOL Dance Company.

Maanila Santos de Moraes (aka Ironica Los Culos, DJ Möser, Ironica) is a Brazilian mixed-media artist and DJ who lives in Vienna. She specialises in audio-visual installations, set design, animation, video art, illustration, screenprinting, object design, video mapping, street art, visual live performances, and conceptual art. She is best known for her audio-reactive video mapping on 3-D objects that offer new dimensions and perspectives on global issues of our time. Maanila Santos de Moraes has presented pieces and exhibitions in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, India, South Africa, Botswana, Mosambique, Malawi, Namibia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, and Bulgaria. She also worked for institutions such as CERN, Lifeball, Ninjatunes, the Wiener Festwochen, Tosca, and others.