Editorial April–June 2025
Dear audience, dear artists,
My tenure as artistic director of Tanzquartier Wien comes to an end after eight years in June 2025. This is the final editorial and the final programme booklet – these are the final performances and projects under my artistic direction.
They have been exciting years for me but challenging ones, too, for example due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were a considerable number of artistic works and programmatic emphases, which I look back at with pleasure. A few cases in point: Doris Uhlich, a choreographer whose work I have been supporting for a long time, started us off in 2018. Every Body Electric, an ensemble piece for performers in (electric) wheelchairs, set an example of diversity right from the beginning. The group piece DANZA Y FRONTERA by Amanda Piña explored a pre-colonial dance from the border area between Mexico and the USA, that is still practised today, by appropriating it pop-culture style. Several works by Belgian superstar Miet Warlop, exceptional Swiss choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis, Iranian-French performance icon Sorour Darabi and Swedish audience favourite Jefta van Dinther were memorable as well. And, of course, there is Florentina Holzinger: I showed her first piece, Kein Applaus für Scheiße, at imagetanz in brut Vienna and have collaborated with her since then – including at TQW: see, for instance, the world premiere of TANZ, and the co-productions A Divine Comedy and Ophelia’s Got Talent. This is why I am very pleased to conclude my final season with Florentina Holzinger’s latest stage work, A Year without Summer.
In 2021, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of TQW with a six-week thematic focus. In an effort to counteract the precarious conditions of creation that young artists are faced with, we founded PARASOL – a dance group of TQW, in 2022. And to promote the international visibility of the local scene, we initiated the relaunch of Choreographic Platform Austria. I succeeded in bringing the six leading Austrian institutions in the field of contemporary dance and performance back to the same table after twelve years without the platform, which resulted in the 2023 edition of CPA.
I am also proud of launching TQW Magazin, a compilation of reviews of every production shown since 2018, as well as founding the Rakete festival, which has drawn special attention to young choreographers each year in May since 2018. Over the years, the festival has presented early works by Lau Lukkarila, Mohamed Toukabri, Luca Bonamore, Camilla Schielin and Oona Doherty, among others. 2018 also marked the beginning of S_P_I_T_ – Queer Performance Festival Vienna, which is hosted annually by TQW and provides ample opportunity to immerse yourself in Vienna’s multifaceted queer performance scene.
And let’s not forget the many exciting collaborations, including with Belvedere, Kontakt Collection, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna Secession, Wiener Festwochen, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Wien Modern, Musikverein Wien!
Finally, I would like to invite you to dive into the remaining months, April to June. I would also like to thank the TQW team, curators Christa Spatt, Carolina Nöbauer, Lewon Heublein, and Anna Leon, as well as all the visitors of the last eight years a thousand times over, and I wish my successors all the best, every success and joy with TQW!
Bettina Kogler
Artistic Director & Programme