The performance cycle WOUNDED WORLD was created between 2016 and 2018. It consists of three essay-performances and the concluding scenic installation WOUNDED WORLD #End: Me. Europe. The essay-performances are based on a strict dramaturgical framework which, alongside discursive associative trips, incorporates poetic actions, theme-related free beer and sonic interactions with the audience. The full-length versions of the performances were presented as a series at WUK Vienna in November 2017. In addition, there were several special and short versions, which were staged between 2016 and 2024 in various contexts in Vienna, Salzburg and Linz. More on the aesthetics of the essay performances can be found in the article SELF-WILL. Some reflections on my work, published in Booklet No. 1 by WUK performing arts.
WOUNDED WORLD #1: Imperatives of Identity
FLUC Vienna, January 2017 / as a guest of FUCKHEAD: VERTEX! Vienna, March 2017 / WUK Vienna, November 2017 / OBSTACLES#1 – Gallery 5020, Salzburg, June 2024
Concept / Script /Sounds / Performance: Otmar Wagner, Production / Dramaturgy: Haiko Pfost
This performance explores physicality, family, career, consumerism, culture, selfies, Oktoberfest statistics and capitalist imperatives. And beer with a taste of home. In principle, it’s about everything, but: SOMETHING IS MISSING!
Featuring: Rudolf Stichweh, Erich Fromm, Gertrude Stein, Niklas Luhmann, Ernst Bloch, Boris Groys, Bertolt Brecht, Georg Büchner, as well as: Lidl, TUI, Bipa, Milka, Media Markt and many others.
The project was co-produced by WUK performing arts Vienna and funded by the City of Vienna’s Department of Culture.
WOUNDED WORLD #2: Cacophony of Colonisation
FLUC Vienna, February 2017 / FUCKHEAD: VERTEX!, Vienna, March 2017 / WUK Vienna, November 2017
Concept / Script /Sounds / Performance: Otmar Wagner, Production / Dramaturgy: Haiko Pfost
This performance is about brass band music in Hawaii, park benches for Aryans, carnivals and human zoos, Native Americans and carol singers, cultural appropriation and pork. And about racist beer.
Featuring: Jean Baudrillard, Rudolf Stichweh, Walter Sauer, Rolf Braun, Uli Hoeneß, Edwin Joshua Ndybisi, Joseph Beuys, Maria Theresia Ledóchowska, Julia Kristeva and many others.
The project was co-produced by WUK performing arts Vienna and funded by the City of Vienna’s Department of Culture.
WOUNDED WORLD #3: Aesthetics of Exclusion
RHIZ Vienna, December 2016 / as a guest of FUCKHEAD: VERTEX! Vienna, March 2017 / Performing Sound Festival Salzburg, October 2017 / WUK Vienna, November 2017 / Superstadt Symposium, University of Linz, May 2019
Concept / Script /Sounds / Performance: Otmar Wagner, Production / Dramaturgy: Haiko Pfost
This performance explores the formal language and beauty of borders – across the globe. Taking the Austrian border crossing at Spielfeld, its history and the events of autumn 2015 as its starting point, this trip of associations leads from historical examples to an examination of current border installations, before returning to Spielfeld. The question at the heart of the piece is: what might the Austrian border fence look like? Is there a transparent, cosmopolitan aesthetic solution to this?
Featuring: Giuliano Wagner, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Patrick Bontenakels, Martin Heidegger, Helmut Ortler, Donald Trump, Bernd Scheifele, Vilém Flusser and many others.
The project was co-produced by WUK performing arts Vienna and funded by the City of Vienna’s Department of Culture.
This topic was also covered in the short video DER ZAUN (THE FENCE) and in the installation WALL/WORK IN PROGRESS. Click here for BORDER FENCE JOGGING.