In Sandpit, Simone Lorenzo Benini and Miriam Budzáková turn sand into a metaphor for the body, a vessel of infinite possibilities, exploring the ambiguity of our memories, which are often vague and blend with imagination, fears and desires. The body becomes a medium through which memories come to life. Those memories do not simply resurface; they transform and create desires, the libido, new identities and alter egos that we all carry inside us but seldom express. Here, sand becomes a symbolic tool for this transformation. Memories transform into new possibilities of being, merging the past and the present, adopting a variety of ambiguous shapes, drawing on the subconscious and allowing energies, emotions, images and fantasies to surface.

Miriam Budzáková is a dance/performance artist working between Austria, Slovakia, and Italy. She is a graduate of SEAD in Salzburg and holds a bachelor’s degree in dance theatre and performance from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Her creative work oscillates between seriousness, humour, irony, and sentimentality. She explores the body’s experience in uncomfortable, intimate, social and public contexts. Miriam Budzáková has collaborated with the art unit INSTITUT INSTITUT (CZ/SK). Since 2017, she has been organising the cross-genre dance festival Tanečno in North Slovakia. Her collaboration with Simone Lorenzo Benini started in 2022.

Simone Lorenzo Benini is a dancer/choreographer currently based in Vienna. He finished his studies in dance at SEAD in Salzburg. In his own choreographic oeuvre, Simone Lorenzo Benini explores movement and expression of the body that evokes ecstasy, vulnerability, despair, the libido, fantasies, emotions and desires. He uses dance as a tool to explore and interpret the kaleidoscopic, conflicting essence of the subconscious and to thereby bring to the surface the multitude of alter egos buried therein. As a performer, he regularly collaborates with Finnish choreographer Elina Pirinen. He is currently supported by Italian network Anticorpi XL and is also an associated artist with AiEP in Milan. His collaboration with Miriam Budzáková started in 2022.

About Bears in the Park and the Huggy Bears Supporting Programme
Since 2016, Huggy Bears has been a pillar of innovative performance art, supporting emerging artists in Vienna. Each year, the supporting 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 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. In 2025, the Huggy Bears Days will be held as a co-operation between brut Wien and WUK performing arts. Additionally, this year the Huggy Bears artists have been supported through a project fund by the Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Kunst, Kultur, Medien und Sport (BMWKMS). The programme is operated by the initiative Bears in the Park run by Philippe Riéra and Charlotte Bastam and supported by City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs (MA7). 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. bearsinthepark.org @bearsinthe.park