PROJECT WEBSITE

 https://sites.google.com/site/adaptfestvienna/

June 22nd, 2022

Dear Misa Kelly Dances:

Wow, what an adventure that was! My body is suddenly rich with the memory of Regina Picker. We met when she travelled all the way from Vienna to experiment in my personal favorite of the beomoth of a festival, the SB-ADaPT Festival as a part of the "Cut the Edge" experimental branch of the offering. She came as a collaborator with another artist from Istanbul, Lerna.  

Regina was so inspired by the experience that she suggested, that next year, something similar be organized in Vienna, and to my amazement, this was accomplished.

I had seen, in my mindʻs eye, the possibility of creating bridges of opportunity by bringing artists together, with connections made, that would lead to opportunity to take art places one would not be able to take work to otherwise. The vision was manifest with tremendous power and beauty!

Not only was I able to share my work, but my partner Stephen shared work, and another artist who participated in the Cut the Edge part of the SB-ADaPT, Valerie Green shared work, and the Slovenian powerhouse, Mojca Macjen, who came to the SB-ADaPT Festival with Dance Theater IGEN, also came as a dancer, as did Joanna Nobbe from New York.

We were housed in fabulous apartments for visiting artists that were a part of the theater. Regina wanted to share my visual art and arranged for me to have my first one person show, and the Festival included similar types of offerings that the SB-ADaPT did, such as artist gathering with food, and time to discuss how the arts function in different countries, in addition to two different performance programs.

I had the additional good fortune to continue on with the Museum Project, and installed myself, guerrilla style, with my art, at the Belvedere. There was breath enough in the schedule to journey the Klint museum. After this Festival we adventured to Paris to perform, and then on to Slovenia, where Mojca introduced me to two of my Slovenian cousins. 

I had opportunity to stay with Mojca, and my partner, in Logarska Dolina, where my grandmother Plesnik was from and the stage was set for one day to return to Slovenia to perform, with an intention for the effort to be an expression of ancestral healing.

I am awestruck, that this was something, that I had a hand in, with of course, RAW MATTERS and Regina Picker being the primary hosts. It was AMAZING!

I learned something powerful about freedom from this project. In the United States, we are supposed to have a lot of freedom, but one thing that doesnʻt exist, is freedom of the body. Joanna and I performed Unzipped in a shop window, which involves nudity. Iʻll never forget the humor of a couple walking by carrying a mattress together. There was no taboo around this, it was completely normal and accepted. I saw recently, an article, in our local newspaper, the big news of a lactation pod, for breastfeeding mothers, and motherʻs that need to pump. How the real beauty of breasts are hidden away, while other, well, it was great to have this freedom of the body in Austria.

gift Magazine

Regina Picker arranged for an interview with gift magazine, about the project, which was a beautiful highlight of the journey, to be remembered in this way. So much gratitude.

Events