In the summer, SPACE HOLDER migrated into public space, where the performative aspects of the project were expanded and site-specific interventions such as storytelling bushes and ecosomatic invitations to engage with the location took center stage, inviting the audience to participate and play along. How can you feel held in the unknown, in uncertainty, in crisis, in flux? The interactive performance holding wavesapproaches this question: somatically, playfully, andparticipatorily. Using materials and ideas from the exhibition waves:held in fluidity and the alternative party concept SPACE HOLDER, the four performers and their surroundings engage in adialogue about impermanence, surging waves of emotion, andmutual care. They seek and find ways to share,to be present with all their senses, and to hold each other. A collective eco-somatic stimming practice is developed.

This performance was part of the 4lthangrund Kultursommer under the motto "Taking up Space". 

How can allyship between contested water bodies and landscapes emerge? What potentials of care, of being held in crisis & flux, emerge at the margins? How may queer and trans perspectives morph human relationalities with the more-than-human world and what potential for change can they offer? 

Waves grapples with these questions of trans- and queer ecological embeddedness via hydrofeminist autoethnography, resulting in audiovisual poems, as well as performances that connect personal journeys with the changes of Vienna’s water environments. In the exhibition space, a blanketed textile landscape resembles how bodies change over time. Waves come and go, as we sew pieces together again, and make the mess sparkle.

This intimate project gives space to the liminal, calling on the waterness of all: an appeal to connection inspired by waters' permeability; for navigating the complexities and uncertainties in the myriad of crises we face, by learning from and caring for beings in flux.

Exhibition opening 06.09.2025, 18:00

Galerie Utopia, 4lthangrund Cultural Centre

• Artist talks: Levi Mühlbacher, Rosie Benn-Squire

• Performances: Mae Schwinghammer, language artist, Levi Mühlbacher, dancer

Exhibition opening times 12-18:00, Finissage 09.06.2025, 15:00 

Videoworks, textile work, and reflection&rest space by Levi Mühlbacher and Rosie Benn-Squire

Poetry, performance, tangible installation by Levi Mühlbacher

This event was subsidized by the Bezirksvertretung Alsergrund.