…and the Golden Lion for the Best Performance goes to… us!!!

Golden Lion for Best Performance at the Venice Biennale: Chris Haring & Liquid Loft Posing Project B - The Art of Seduction artistic direction and choreography: Chris Haring dramatisation: Thomas Jelinek theoretical contribution: Katherina Zakravsky original music and ambiance: Glim (Andreas Berger) cast: Stephanie Cumming, Katherina Meves, Alexander Gottfarb, Anna Maria Novak, and Luke Baio visual concept: Aldo Giannotti video: Michael Loitzenbauer organisation: Jessika Wyschka, SODAart.at production: liquid loft, La Biennale di Venezia with the contribution of Progetto Europeo Cultura 2000 within the danceWEB Europe network in collaboration with Impulstanz international dancefestival Vienna, Tanzquartier Vienna, MA7 - City of Vienna, arts department Vienna, The Austrian Federal Chancellery NEXT SHOWS: 8, 10, 11 August 2007 Semper Depot, 21:00 ImPulsTanz - Vienna International Dance Festival The Liquid Loft company, founded by choreographer and dancer Chris Haring together with the artists Andreas Berger, Thomas Jelinek and Stephanie Cumming, garnered awards at the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna in 2006 for its last creation, Running Sushi, a performance in 12 scenes that the spectator chooses from to compose a new story, exactly like at a running sushi restaurant where every dish is different. The Vienna Festival has since commissioned a work from the company based on the theme of the 5th International Festival of Contemporary Dance and in co-production with La Biennale di Venezia. Thus Posing Project came about, which, as the title suggests, is a project that will be developed over two years and is structured in three phases: The art of wow, presented in Vienna, The art of seduction, making its world premiere in Venice, and The art of self reflection. ‘How do you seduce the world?’ asks Chris Haring, continuing his reflection on contemporary reality that began with Running sushi, which tackles art and its fruition. Posing Project is an investigation into what today banally and obsessively goes by the name of ‘image’, which involves the subject as much as the receiver, and which culminates in the obviousness of its stereotype par excellence: advertising, with all its power of seduction. Concerned not so much with the ‘pose’ in itself, but the ‘method of posing’, Chris Haring, the leader of an artistic company consisting of members coming from different fields, such as the musician Andreas Berger and the visual artist Aldo Giannotti, constructs his performance within a sound environment capable of modelling and modifying the dance itself. Before founding his own group, the Viennese Chris Haring was a dancer with the DV8 Physical Theatre and Nigel Charnock, as well as founding the Grenztanz festival in 1995; he has created two video performances in association with the artist and multimedia composer Klaus Obermaier, D.A.V.E. and Vivisector; Fremdkoerper, inspired by the cybernetic scenarios of science fiction films, won an award at the Tanzquartier Vienna and was nominated best performance of 2004 in Lyons. As Liquid Loft’s choreographer, as well as Running sushi and the new Posing Project, he has also created Kind of Heroes (an award winner at the Burgtheater in Vienna in May 2005) and My Private Bodyshop (an award winner at the Tanzquartier Vienna in October 2005), both presented in Brussels during the Austrian presidency of the EU and at the Tanzplatform 2006.