Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Performance/Film/Art/Talk at DONAUFESTIVAL 2025
1. Performances
Göksu Kunak: Geçmiş Masumiyet/Bygone Innocence
Openingperformance to the Exhibition
Performed for the first time in Austria
Free numbered tickets required!
Kunsthalle Krems
Performance:
02.05. 17:00 – 18:00
Traces of scattered gunshots and a car wreck as cinematic symbols of alienation: Recalling David Cronenberg’s film of J.G. Ballard’s classic Crash, the opening performance to the exhibition Geçmiş Masumiyet/Bygone Innocence by Göksu Kunak revolves around a renowned scandal, a car accident in the Turkish city of Susurluk in 1996. Among the victims: the former chief of the Istanbul police and a member of the Grey Wolves organisation who was sought by Interpol. This constellation uncovered the existence of a controversial criminal network. The multimedia work Geçmiş Masumiyet/ Bygone Innocence explores the politics of concealment while questioning the notion of simulacra produced by overly trained, almost hyperreal muscles and machines seen as fetish objects. The accompanying performance shifts the focus to the society of the spectacle and to gestures that provoke moments of apprehension.
Artistic Direction: Göksu Kunak | Curation: Léon Kruijswijk | Performance with: Bilgesu Akyürek, Felix Beer, Chima Okerenkwo | Management: Florian Greß
Bygone Innocence was originally created for PİLEVNELİ, Istanbul.
In Kooperation mit Kunsthalle Krems
Content note: mentions of death and depictions of violence
See full credits online.
• Göksu Kunak – Website: https://guccichunk.berta.me/
• @goeksu_kunak – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goeksu_kunak/
God’s Entertainment: DU DU DA DA NA NA NAH
Commissioned work
Limited capacity, registration on site.
Messegelände | Zentrale
Performance:
02.05. 21:00 – 22:30
03.05. 21:00 – 22:30
04.05. 15:00 – 16:30
09.05. 20:00 – 21:30
10.05. 20:30 – 22:00
11.05. 15:30 – 17:00
Installation:
02. – 04. and 09. – 11.05.
The route begins with a boat cruise on land, passes through a mountain range of oil tanks, and ends in a maze of driftwood where a walk-in aquarium awaits! With God’s Entertainment, the waterway transforms into a surreal parallel world, into a potentially venomous snake, a dubious doppelganger of the “Blue Danube” that summons our uncanny and repressed notions of (south-eastern) Europe. Indeed,
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
the dominion of water is a trade route and place of longing, a migration corridor and national border, nature and sewer. As a myth and speculation, it creates trails to be followed, connects the flows of things and beings, of oil, waste, data, swarms, and pheromones. These paths chart outrageous movements, devise tactics of translation and transgression, and lead to unplanned encounters. In the Danube double by God’s Entertainment, everything flows.
God’s Entertainment
With kind support from Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien / MA7
See full credits online.
• God’s Entertainment – Website: https://www.gods-entertainment.org/
• @godsentertainment_wien – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godsentertainment_wien/
El Conde de Torrefiel: La luz de un lago
Performed for the first time in Austria Free numbered tickets required!
Messegelände| Halle 1
02.05. 19:30 – 21:00
03.05. 19:30 – 21:00
04.05. 13:30 – 15:00
A wall on the stage, as if waiting for strange projections from the distance or memories from the future: the plot of La luz de un lago is woven from fragments of the lives of characters from different places at different times. This highly evocative work tells a story of love and emptiness, work and violence, oscillating visually between illusions and hallucinations while offering trenchant observations on a society full of contradictions and conflicts. With appearances as textual invocations: a couple who met at a concert in Manchester in the past, two secret lovers in Athens, a trans woman in Paris, and an opera premiere in a future Venice. Scenographic spatial interpretations and suggestive sound elements lure the audience into the vortex of an elusive but all the more fascinating stage creation. A rift cuts through the world – and creates a dream full of realities.
Written and directed by Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert | With Mireia Donat Melús, Mauro Molina, Isaac Torres | Set: El Conde de Torrefiel & La Cuarta Piel Videos: Carlos Pardo and María Antón Cabot | Sound: Rebecca Praga & Uriel Ireland | Technical director: Isaac Torres | Technicians on tour: Uriel Ireland, Guillem Bonfill, Roberto Baldin Co-produced by ICEC –Gen. de Catalunya, Festival GREC – Barcelona, CC Conde Duque – Madrid, Maison St. Gervais – Geneva, Teatro Municipal de Porto, Festival d’Automne de Paris, Festival delle Colline Torinesi, Festival Contemporanea – Prato, VIERNULVIER – Gent Content note: depictions of violence and parts with stroboscopic lights
See full credits online.
• El Conde de Torrefiel – Website: http://www.elcondedetorrefiel.com/
• @elcondedetorrefiel – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elcondedetorrefiel/
Eman Hussein: Smell of Cement
Performed for the first time in Austria
Free numbered tickets required!
Messegelände| Halle 3
02.05. 22:00 – 22:30
03.05. 22:00 – 22:30
04.05. 15:00 – 15:30
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
The solo dance piece Smell of Cement explores the movement repertoire of construction workers. In her research on large construction sites, choreographer Eman Hussein observed striking similarities to contemporary dance. Not only is the pain and sweat of the work inscribed in the sweating bodies, but also the emotional burden of precarious employment and the agonising distance from their families. The scorching sun, the sharp smell of cement, the fragility of these bodies repeating the same rhythmic movements with dance-like precision for hours on end, at great heights, on unstable ground, engulfed by noise, dust, and great danger – all this inspired Eman Hussein’s hypnotic choreography set on a scaffolding. Prior to the performance, the dance film Belia (2021) by Eman Hussein immerses viewers in the day-to-day work at an auto repair shop.
Concept, choreographer & director: Eman Hussein Sound design: Youssra El Hawary Dramaturgy: Nedjma Hadj Benchelabi
With kind support of Halaqat Brussels, Pro Helvetia Cairo
See full credits online.
• Eman Hussein – Website: https://www.emanhussein.org/
• Trailer: Smell Of Cement by Eman Hussein auf Vimeo
• @eman.hussein.315 – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eman.hussein.315/
Regina José Galindo: El Gran Retorno
Performed for the first time in Austria
Meeting point: Südtiroler Platz / Steiner Tor 03.05. 14:30 – 15:00
In 2019, the world premiere of El Gran Retorno took place in Guatemala City with professional musicians under the direction of feminist performance artist Regina José Galindo. The work alludes to Guatemala’s past military dictatorship, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands. At the same time, it can be read as a portent for the increasing armed conflicts around the world and now reaching far into Europe. El Gran Retorno also condemns the global erosion of democracy, which has been particularly noticeable since Donald Trump's rise to power. At donaufestival, Regina José Galindo will lead a large Austrian marching band down through Krems’ pedestrian zone. However, in contrast to the colourful uniforms or traditional costumes that such band members wear at festivities, they will be dressed in black, like at a funeral, and they will not be marching, but slowly moving backwards. Using the simplest of means, this image is a powerful expression of the current remilitarisation and repatriotisation in the world, reviving the very real fear of war that many in Europe believed was a thing of the past.
With kind support from Stadtkapelle Krems und Trachtenkapelle Rossatz
See full credits online.
• Regina José Galindo – Website: https://www.reginajosegalindo.com/en/home-en/
• @galindoreginajose – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/galindoreginajose/?hl=de
• El Gran Retorno (2022) auf YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRFAT4H9Hls
Deva Schubert: Silent Spills II
Free numbered tickets required!
Performance Forum Frohner
03.05. 15:30 – 16:30 04.05. 16:30 – 17:30
Installation
02. – 04. and 09. – 11.05
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria 02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Silent Spills II is an intimate exploration of the porosity of the female body as source of uncontrollable leaking. Not only liquids but also sounds persistently escape the body and reveal stories. To this day, women’s mouths and orifices are censored and sanctioned. What happens when their voices, their fluids, and their memories infiltrate the disciplined public space and demand to be heard? Who is allowed to speak – and who is silenced? Deva Schubert’s fluid choreography merges bodies and sounds, generating resonances that envelop visitors in a seemingly uncontrolled and affective ambience. In this permeable and floating constellation of movement and sound, spaces of micro-intimacy emerge whose structure perpetually reshapes itself. Silent Spills are whispering protests and emphatic objections that subtly undermine barriers and hierarchies.
Deva Schubert (concept and choreography) | Camilla Schielin (performance) | Lukas Kötz (spatial design) | Davide Luciani (sound artist) | Jette Büchsenschütz (dramaturgy) | Lotta Beckers (Outside Eye and text contributions sound installation) | Clara Hoehre (costume) | Dylan Kerr, Chihiro Araki, Siegmar Zacharias (sound recordings) | local guest performers Silent Spills is a Co-production of donaufestival and Kunstraum Niederösterreich.
See full credits online.
In Cooperation with AIR Krems
• Deva Schubert – Website: https://devaschubert.com/
• @devaschubert – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devaschubert/
• Silent Spills I at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich: https://www.kunstraum.net/de/silentspills
• ImPulsTanz 8:tension Young Choreographers Award: https://www.impulstanz.com/performances/id3199/
Ayla Pierrot Arendt: Death in Peace
Performed for the first time in Austria Free numbered tickets required!
Messegelände| Halle 1
09.05. 21:00 – 22:00 and 23:00 – 00:00
10.05. 19:30 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 23:00
11.05. 14:30 – 15:30
The video opera Death in Peace took shape against the backdrop of the anti-government protests sweeping through the streets of Tbilisi in the spring of 2024. In Ayla Pierrot Arendt’s piece, embedded in the unsettling soundscape by composer duo Nika Pasuri and Ani Zakareishvili, the protagonists of three different nationalities meet on four screens: two Georgians, two Germans, and a Russian in exile in Georgia. With their respective ideas of peace and freedom, friend and foe, inseparable from their political biographies, they encounter one another in the story of the Georgian Natia and the Russian deserter Andrej. And it is not long before Andrej is dead, shot in the German embassy in Tbilisi, of all places, by the ambassador’s husband. His accidental death raises many questions: the price of freedom, the limits of diplomacy, the gaps and myths of collective identity and loyalties – fuelled by mounting fears in an uneasy, conflict-ridden Europe.
Concept, Direction: Ayla Pierrot Arendt | Performance: Pia Epping, Tabea Gregory, Lucy-Jo Petermann, Carolina Saad Vasconcellos, LaraMarie Weine | Dramaturgy: Kristina Roeder | Choreography: Annabelle Dvir | Composition: Nika Pasuri, Ani Zakareishvili | Vocal Performance: Choir of Opera Kutaisi, Davit Khorbaladze | Lyrics: Davit Khorbaladze | Costume: Clara Rosina Strasser | DOP: Maxim Pechersky | Montage: Ayla Pierrot Arendt, Paul Haas | Production manager: Diana Koschlakow | Light Design Stage: Matthias Rieker | Video Technician Stage: Nina Nadig Production: Ayla Pierrot Arendt | Co-produced by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (DE)
Content note: parts with stroboscopic lights and mentions/depictions of death
See full credits online.
• @aylapierrotarendt – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aylapierrotarendt
• https://cointernational.de/ayla-pierrot-arendt-d/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaQpg4Xh9qlJphhqVoAtTI1SoIb1K14FmZf0ZTFDMnNqIF0xqI3r34U54_aem_b7yL-I7GW5xpjdSEYSDaKw
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Original Bomber Crew: tReta – a performative invasion
Performed for the first time in Austria Free numbered tickets required!
Messegelände| Halle 3
09.05. 21:00 – 22:00
10.05. 19:30 – 20:30
11.05. 15:30 – 16:30
Skateboards shoot past while a collage of police sirens, voice samples from churches, and splintery noise screams in the background. A group of performers with masked faces and bare torsos bustle about in the dark. Fire could break out. The Original Bomber Crew has its roots in the expressive hiphop and breakdance culture of the north-eastern Brazilian city of Teresina. The title of their explosive “Broken Dance” derives from the slang term tReta for urban struggles and problems, such as police assaults, street violence, and gang criminality. Formed in 2005 on the outskirts of Teresina, the collective responds to this everyday reality with a “performative invasion” – its furious and fast-paced action repeatedly steers towards collisions and outbursts of aggression. The gestures of the unruly, sweaty bodies mirror the chaos of entanglements that marks a dysfunctional society and corrupt state full of social inequalities, racism, and conflicting values.
Conception Allexandre Bomber, Cesar Costa | Direction Allexandre Bomber | Creation-performance Allexandre Bomber, Cesar Costa, Javé Montuchô, Malcom Jefferson, Maurício Pokemon, Phillip Marinho, Vini Nex Technical design and operation Javé Montuchô, César Costa, Phillip Marinho | Management assistance Humilde Alves | Production Regina Veloso/REVOADA
Piece created in 2017-2018, at Casa de Hip Hop + Espaço Balde + CAMPO Arte/Revoada, in Teresina-BRA Content note: depictions of violence and mentions of mental illness/death/suicide See full credits online.
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLA4UMluns
• @originalbombercrew – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/originalbombercrew
People Like Us: The Library of Babel
Performed for the first time in Austria
Kino im Kesselhaus 10.05. 13:15 – 14:15
Sampling as folklore, bridging the gap between art and entertainment: with densely interwoven collages and fractured narratives, The Library of Babel embarks on a dreamlike journey through cinema and sound, where the actors are set adrift from their story, left with pure experience. The title is inspired by a 1941 Jorge Luis Borges short story that explores the complex interplay of infinity, knowledge, and the cosmic fabric, presented through the metaphor of a vast, seemingly infinite library that has no purpose or intentions. Working with the related idea of a digital library, multimedia artist Vicki Bennett behind People Like Us performs live: she recombines and reconfigures the images on screen with sounds that are often already ingrained in the audience’s collective consciousness due to previous associations. People Like Us presents us with a haunting, immersive experience but also aims for a democratising and unexpected rendering of what we thought was familiar.
Video editing, musical compositions, performance: Vicki Bennett | Video compositing: Peter Knight Musical compositions: Ergo Phizmiz | Musical compositions: Lottie Bowater | Arts Council England
See full credits online.
• Website & Trailer: https://peoplelikeus.org/2023/the-library-of-babel/
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Kim Noble: Nah am Wasser gebaut to weep easily: a celebration of rivers and donaufestival
Comissioned work
Podcast
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of donaufestival in its current form, Kim Noble, arguably the UK’s most extremist comedian, extends his congratulations via podcast. Noble’s deeply stirring multimedia performance Lullaby for Scavengers, which oscillates between tragedy and absurdity, was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the 2023 edition. The award-winning performance artist will draw a connection between water and tears in his podcast commissioned by donaufestival. It will be published on the donaufestival website and in an adapted form as part of Noble’s Futile Attempts podcast series
• Kim Noble – Website: https://mrkimnoble.com/
• @mr.kimnoble – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrkimnoble/
• Futile Attempts Podcast: https://mrkimnoble.com/futile-attempts-podcast/
2. Art
Göksu Kunak: Geçmiş Masumiyet/Bygone Innocence
Kunsthalle Krems
03.05. – 26.10.2025
Tue – Sun 10:00 – 18:00
Opening: Fr, 02.05. 17:00 – 18:00 Free numbered tickets required for the performance on Fr.02.05.!
In Bygone Innocence, Göksu Kunak presents a multimedia artistic intervention based on the car accident in Susurluk in 1996. Weapons were found in the wreckage. Among the victims: the former chief of the Istanbul police and a member of the Grey Wolves organisation who was sought by Interpol. This constellation uncovered the existence of a controversial criminal network in Turkey. Kunak’s work explores the politics of concealment and interprets the notion of the crash as a fetish – all systems down between drama and soap opera.
Bygone Innocence wurde für PİLEVNELİ, Istanbul konzipiert. In Kooperation mit Kunsthalle Krems See full credits online.
• Göksu Kunak – Website: https://guccichunk.berta.me/
• @goeksu_kunak – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goeksu_kunak/
• Göksu Kunak, Bygone Innocence at Kunsthalle Krems: https://www.kunstmeile.at/de/ausstellungen/g%C3%B6ksu-kunak
Deva Schubert – Silent Spills II
Forum Frohner Installation
02.05. 17:00 – 19:00
03.05. 16:30 – 19:00
04.05. 17:30 – 21:30
09.05. 16:00 – 19:30
10.05. 15:30 – 19:00
11.05. 17:00 – 22:00
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Performance
03.05. 15:30 – 16:30
04.05. 16:30 – 17:30
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Free numbered tickets required for the performances on Sa. 03.05. and Sun 04.05.!
The sound installation Silent Spills II complements the same-named performance (May 3 & 4) with an intimate soundscape in which memories, noises, and body fluids flow into each other. Voices and sounds leak into the space from loudspeakers and entwine with the visitors’ presence. Voiceless screams and their dissonances condense into the haunting question of who and what remains unheard.
Silent Spills is a Coproduction of donaufestival and Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. See full credits online. In cooperation with AIR Krems
• Deva Schubert – Website: https://devaschubert.com/
• @devaschubert – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devaschubert/
• Silent Spills I at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich: https://www.kunstraum.net/de/silentspills
• ImPulsTanz 8:tension Young Choreographers Award: https://www.impulstanz.com/performances/id3199/
God’s Entertainment – DU DU DA DA NA NA NAH (Jahr)
Messegelände | Zentrale
Installation:
02.05. 19:00 – 01:00
03.05. 19:00 – 01:00
04.05. 13:00 – 15:00
09.05. 19:30 – 01:00
10.05. 19:00 – 01:00
11.05. 14:00 – 16:30
Performance:
02. – 04. and 09. – 11.05.
Free numbered tickets required!
The route begins with a boat cruise on land, passes through a mountain range of oil tanks, and ends in a maze of driftwood where a walk-in aquarium awaits! In their three-part installation about the dominion of water, God’s Entertainment concoct a surreal doppelganger of the “Blue Danube” that summons our uncanny and repressed notions of (south-eastern) Europe and unravels the connections between trade and migration routes.
God‘s Entertainment
With kind support from Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien / MA7
See full credits online.
• God’s Entertainment – Website: https://www.gods-entertainment.org/
• @godsentertainment_wien – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godsentertainment_wien/
Jeremy Deller – Every age
Urban Space
At this year’s donaufestival, the Turner Prize winner and conceptual artist Jeremy Deller contributes a thought by the Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi. A short, poignant statement will be smuggled into Krems as a public space intervention that triggers a moment of reflection on the political situation.
• Jeremy Deller – Website: https://www.jeremydeller.org/
• @jeremydeller – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremydeller/
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Maria W Horn – Panoptikon
Klangraum Krems | Kapitelsaal
Installation:
02.05. 17:00 – 19:00
03.05. 15:30 – 19:00
04.05. 16:30 – 21:30
09.05. 16:00 – 19:30
10.05. 15:30 – 19:00
11.05. 16:00 – 22:00
Klangraum Krems | Minoritenkirche
Concert:
03.05. 18:00 – 19:00
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
This multichannel sound and fluctuating light installation synthesizes voices and electronics into a melodic mesh. It was originally developed in 2020 in the northern Swedish city of Luleå, where the Vita Duvan panopticon prison (The White Dove) remained in operation until 1979. The building is the only one of its kind in Sweden. Its architecture enabled the permanent surveillance of the cells’ interior from a central observation tower at the centre of the circular building. In reality, the inmates, who are remembered as imagined voices in the music, remained in isolation.
• Maria W Horn – Panoptikon Interview: https://youtu.be/IZYmY2jNHV0?si=67RpSR6ev3jihZ_l
• Website: https://mariahorn.se/
• @mariawhorn – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariawhorn/?hl=de
Sebastián Díaz Morales – Miles marchan (Thousands March)
Galerie Stadtpark 03.05. – 11.05. Wed – Sun 14:00 – 19:00
In the exhibition at Galerie Stadtpark, the Argentinian artist and filmmaker examines the relationship between crowds and power in two works. While the large-scale projection of the film Thousands March places visitors in a frog’s-eye view, confronting them with an hour-long continuum of protesting people marching past, Díaz Morales’s second film, also a close-up, portrays the seemingly endless handshakes of a former Argentinian president at his inauguration.
• Miles Marchan (Thousands March) excerpt: https://vimeo.com/538087318
• Sebastián Díaz Morales – Website: https://www.sebastiandiazmorales.com/
• @sebastiandiazmorales – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sebastiandiazmorales/
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
3. Theory & Talk
Markus Metz & Georg Seeßlen: Die Fabrikation der politischen Paranoia
Multimedia-Show (DE)
Kino im Kesselhaus
03 05 13:15 – 14:15
In 2011, the authors of the book Blödmaschinen (Stupid Machines) attempted to describe the depletion of people’s minds as a social-mechanical process. This was at a time when neoliberalism was spreading from the boardrooms and think tanks into culture and everyday life. 14 years later, it’s all about how these heads can be refilled once again. With a worldview whose stupidity is only surpassed by its perfidy – the right-wing narrative of what has to go, what has to be taken back, and what we need to make great again.
Markus Metz, 1958, is an author and journalist based in Munich.
Georg Seeßlen, 1948, is an author and journalist based Kaufbeuren.
Moderation: Sara Abbasi
Jens Balzer, Kilian Jörg, Angela Richter: Die Freiheit, die wer meint?
Talk (DE)
Kino im Kesselhaus
04.05. 15:15– 16:15
The old systems are crashing. Distrust of the "deep state" and its institutions is being fuelled by algorithms, and democracies appear to be under fire from a new authoritarianism. At the heart of many debates is the dispute about freedom. Who is free from what and to which ends is it for? In discussion: Jens Balzer is preparing a book on post-liberalism, Kilian Jörg argues in favour of an ecological turnaround and Angela Richter advocates anti-authoritarian liberalism.
Jens Balzer is a writer and journalist.
Kilian Jörg is a philosopher and artist.
Angela Richter is a German-Croatian director and author
Dietmar Dath & Julia Grillmayr: Live on Venus
Talk (DE)
Kino im Kesselhaus
10.05. 14:00 – 15:00
Billionaires are not just colonising planets, they are also paralysing our imagination of what is possible in society. What progressive future scenarios could cultivate a new form of togetherness? Cultural scientist and journalist Julia Grillmayr and science fiction author and journalist Dietmar Dath share ideas on the topic. In his new book Skyrmionen we read that humans have never been anything else but machines that an incomprehensible nature feeds with data to chain them to itself.
Dietmar Dath is a writer, journalist, and translator.
Julia Grillmayr is a cultural scientist and journalist specialised in environmental humanities and science fiction research.
Moderation: Jens Balzer
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Pressinformation
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Magda Szpecht: Cyberactivism and Performing Arts Talk (EN)
Kino im Kesselhaus
11.05. 15:30 – 16:30
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
In her lecture, Magda Szpecht presents the practice of combining methodologies from different disciplines with activism and performing arts. Modern technologies and collaborations with activists from around the world can effectively support people affected by wars or climate disasters. Contemporary documentary theatre can benefit from open-source intelligence methodologies and use high-tech tools to simulate and speculate on real events.
Magda Szpecht, born 1990, is a theatre and opera director. Since the invasion of Ukraine, she has become a full-time cyberactivist, sharing her experience in performances such as Cyber Elf (2022), SPY GIRLS (2024), and She stands in the middle of the battlefield (2025).
Moderation: Christian Höller
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
4. Film
Easter
directed by Ksenia Yurkova
Kino im Kesselhaus
03.05 12:00 – 13:15
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Repurposing found archival material, this film analyses the discursive eclecticism and political eschatology of contemporary Russia, which has been deployed to justify the invasion of Ukraine in a socalled “denazification” operation – a mirror projection of the country’s leaning towards fascism.
Easter | R: Ksenia Yurkova | AUT 2023 | 15 min Russian OV with English subtitles
• Trailer: https://kseniayurkova.art/easter2023
Schwester Courage
directed by Kollektiv ZUGANG
Kino im Kesselhaus
03.05 12:00 – 13:15
The film portrays the public protests against the official coronavirus measures with sometimes disturbing documentary footage and street theatre scenes – while following in the footsteps of Bertolt Brecht and Caravaggio.
Schwester Courage | R: Kollektiv ZUGANG | DE 2024 | 60 min | German OV
Critical Zone
directed by Ali Ahmadzadeh
Kino im Kesselhaus
04.05 13:30 – 15:15
The dope arrives in an ambulance through a seemingly endless tunnel. The drug courier Amir navigates through the underworld of Tehran, delivering drugs of all kinds to customers, alleviating the suffering of distraught souls like a therapist without a licence. Under the control of the regime, obscured by the movement of cars, the longing and the cries lead to nowhere. Equipped with miniature cameras and taking great risks, Ahmadzadeh joins the ranks of resistance films in Iran: a trip without sunlight, a night without end, a city without a future, a film of the year.
Critical Zone | R: Ali Ahmadzadeh | IRN, DE 2024 99 min | German / Farsi OV with German subtitles
Content note: dizzying camera shots, coarse language, mentions of mental illness/depression/suicidal ideation
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deiFiPDySAU
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Pressinformation
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Everything But The World
directed by Lauren Boyle, DIS
Kino im Kesselhaus
10.05 12:30 – 13:00
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Once upon a time, there was progress. Sci-fi vignettes connect the Neolithic Revolution with Amazon’s modern, materialistic “fulfilment centres”: giant warehouses that loom over the landscape like archives of modern man’s most basic/banal needs and desires.
DIS: Everything But The World | R: Lauren Boyle | USA, 2022 | 37min | English OV
• Trailer: https://mubi.com/de/films/everything-but-the-world/trailer
Abendland
directed by Omer Fast
Kino im Kesselhaus
11.05. 13:30 – 15:25
A climate activist in an Angela Merkel mask loses her bearings while fleeing from the police. The German forest harbours many ominous things, such as eco-sect treehouse dwellers who ritualistically swap masks to conceal their identities. Stranded in the wilderness, “Angela” must endure several tests in the commune. The acclaimed video and film artist Omer Fast is a sophisticated and wickedly funny trickster, a master of confusion. Angela in Wonderland and her uncanny doubles may be hiding behind the masks.
Abendland | R: Omer Fast | DE, 2024 | 115min German OV
Content note: This film contains nudity and depicts violence and death
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dL3kNRgrI
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse
Pressinformation
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
FREE NUMBERED TICKETS:
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Due to limited capacities, we ask you to reserve tickets for some events. Online reservation from Tue, 29 April, 10:00 a.m. & collection possible from the 1st day (10:00 a.m.) of the respective event weekend.
Note:
Detailed information on the programme, starting times, day and multi-day tickets, ticket reservations (recommended for individual performances!), cast and credits, as well as video and sound samples can be found at www.donaufestival.at
Press contact
Barbara Pluch
Mobil: + 43/ 664 60499 322
E-mail: barbara.pluch@noe-festival.at
Carolin Kayali
Mobil: +43/ 664 60499 332
E-Mail: carolin.kayali@noeku.at
Press photos
Artist photos
Promo photos of the artists performing at the donaufestival can be downloaded from the press section of the website or from this link:
> Performance, Kunst, Film, Diskurs: https://celum.noeku.at/pinaccess/showpin.do?pinCode=2025DF_PerformanceArtFilmTalk
We will be happy to send you further motifs and additional information material by e-mail on request!
Festival photos
For legal and organizational reasons, only the festival photographers of the donaufestival will be admitted during the festival.
The festival photos of the evening before (300dpi) can be found on our website the following morning (for use free of charge if the donaufestival and the photographer are named).
Press tickets / Accreditation
We ask for your understanding that we cannot issue press tickets without an appropriate pre- or review. We issue a maximum of one press ticket and one half-priced ticket per festival day and medium. Please be so kind and clarify this with your editorial staff and send us a copy of your report.
Please download the ACCREDITATION FORM www.donaufestival.at/de/presse and send it to akkreditierung@donaufestival.at by April 16th, 2025 the latest!
Collection of press tickets: Please collect your tickets until half an hour before the beginning of the event. Tickets that have not been collected will be given to visitors queuing at the box office.
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau – www.donaufestival.at/presse