Hearth – on wet grounds is the next development of Magdalena Forster’s solo performance „Hearth“, in which the choreographer uses iron objects to create connections and draw the audience into a world that ranges from subtle, fleeting details to larger contexts. Metal is the focus here – not only as a material, but also as a living, breathing presence. In collaboration with Simon Forster’s forge in Braunau am Inn, objects were created from iron and stainless steel, iron discs and shoe prostheses that are reminiscent of the folk god Pan, a hybrid creature between man and goat who uses his flutes both to comfort and seduce. Hearth – on wet grounds revisits these ideas and embeds them in public space. The artists Magdalena Forster, Milena Georgieva, Martina De Dominicis and Mar Szydlowska familiarize themselves with movement scores and chants inspired by dances from the region. A variety of sound sources are used, alternating between live organ pipes, voice and composed elements.
CV
Magdalena Forster
is a choreographer and performer. Her work deals with intimacy and relationships with material, sculpture, sound and the body. She engages with spaces with intuitive curiosity and plays with the potential of the unforeseen. Forster is concerned with personal documentation and kinetic archives and, in her performances to recode a sense of belonging and rootedness. Her pieces have been presented at Tanzquartier Wien, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab and Sonic Territories Festival, among others.
Milena Georgieva
born in Sofia and based in Vienna, is a composer and transdisciplinary artist. Her research deals with sound, symbiosis, landscape theory, queer feminism, identity politics and, currently, interspecies and interspatial relationships. In her compositions, she seeks a fluid, unfettered sense of music and listening, crossing genres to develop multidimensional sound bodies. Georgieva also also performs under the pseudonym Yuzu. Appearances: Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Tanzquartier Wien, Kunsthalle Wien, Kunsthaus Zürich, Goethe-Institut Sofia, Wiener Festwochen, ImPulsTanz, Unsafe+Sounds, among others.
Martina De Dominicis
is a performer and choreographer from Vienna. She dedicates herself to both her own artistic projects as well as collaborations with other artists. After her training and work as a neoclassical dancer at various European institutions, she has worked with Cocoondance Company (DE/CH), Veza Maria Fernandez, Georg Blaschke, Daphna Horenzcik, Alexander Gottfarb, Karin Pauer, Michikazu Matsune, Magdalena Forster and BRUCH, among others. In her current artistic research, she is dedicating herself to intermediate states of presence and exploring practices based on touch and perception. Her work revolves around the question of how the act of performance can open spaces for memory, longing and intimacy. Martina’s work is currently funded by the City of Vienna’s Department of Performing Arts and the Austrian Ministry of Culture.
Simon Forster
born in Braunau in 1986, at the age of nine he won third prize in the Austrian Blacksmithing Competition. From 2002 to 2005 he completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith in his family’s business and then worked in various metalworking companies. He passed the master craftsman’s examination in 2007 and subsequently took over the blacksmith shop Metall Kunst Handwerk Forster in Braunau am Inn. Since then, Forster has been an independent locksmith and blacksmith. The workshop focuses on individual handcrafted productions as well as free artistic works. In 2024, he collaborates with Magdalena Forster for the performance production “Hearth”, which premieres at the Tanzquartier Wien in 2025.
Mar Szydłowska
is an artist and choreographer working at the intersection of visual and performing arts. Their practice
traces the withdrawn and peripheral qualities of presence/absence within architectural spaces and institutional
environments, unfolding the politics of perception and attention. In recent years, they’ve been researching through/with
the notion and practices of cleaning, creating a diptych of solo works SOAK and LEAKS. Graduated from MA STUDIOS
programme at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels in 2021, their work was presented at Rakete Festival at Tanzquartier in Vienna,
Beursschouwburg in Brussels, Brussels Gallery Weekend, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw among others. They are
currently a researcher at THIRD postgraduate fellowship at DAS in Amsterdam.