There are countless ways to ruin one’s life. Crying and lying are only two of them, tried many times and passed down through generations. Take binary gender roles, for example, or deeply internalised work ethics with their complex blend of compulsion and choice, necessity and desire, habit and intent. Of course, this never turns into a stringent story, no matter how endlessly we might try. Instead, Ale Bachlechner and her cast offer an individually explorable kaleidoscope of fragments with their participatory performance/video installation Ruin Your Life. Unreliable narrators tell stories of tearful mother–daughter relationships, ruins of masculinity are explored, birthdays, weddings and funerals are celebrated, babies or pets are acquired, and you’re constantly missing out on something.

Countering the concept of a quick, linear and progressive succession of milestones in what we like to call personal life and career, artist Ale Bachlechner presents the character of the late bloomer, who reaches these milestones either late, in the wrong order or never.

What ‘life plans’ are conceivable and liveable aside from the two classics of family and/or career? When promises of ‘a good life’ are not kept (anymore), maybe we could start to make a life in the middle of the constantly imminent, total and self-inflicted decay?

Note: The performance and video installation Ruin Your Life is open for four and a half hours on each of the two show days. According to their individual preferences, audience members can either be actively included in the performers’ stories or remain uninvolved. Visitors may come and go as they please. A stay of at least one hour is recommended.

Ale Bachlechner works with performance, video and all their points of overlap. In particular, her works are concerned with communication and affectation, forms of relationships and the traps of neoliberalism. They range from solo shows to bigger collaborations and include the temporary dating agency Twelve Roses (2013), the participatory performance coaching institute This Is Not A Competition (2016), the online TV series Studio Hallo (2018), the solo performances Men and Me (2019) and Crying and Lying (2023/24) as well as a long-standing collaboration with the ensemble Artmann&Duvoisin. Bachlechner studied comparative literature in Innsbruck and art at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. She also held several teaching positions. Her monography I’m Sure Everybody’s Doing Their Best was published by DISTANZ.

About Bears in the Park and the ‘HUGGY BEARS mentoring program’:

Since 2016, Huggy Bears has been a pillar of innovative performance art, supporting emerging artists in Vienna. Each year, the mentoring programme provides three or four individuals or 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 nine-month programme, the mentees get to present their performance projects for the first time on a big stage in Vienna. This year, the Huggy Bears Days will be held as a co-operation between brut Wien and WUK performing arts. The programme is operated by the initiative Bears in the Park run by Philippe Riéra and Charlotte Bastam. The initiative is dedicated to supporting the Vienna performance scene and helping it grow. To foster this goal, the HUGGY BEARS are offered not only reliable advisors but also rehearsal spaces. Each autumn, Bears in the Park releases an open call for artists to submit their project proposals for the following year.