Learning from Loïe // Anat Stainberg (IL/AT), Martina Tritthart (AT), Nicole Pruckermayr (AT), Sara Zlanabitnig (AT)
Sun 27.4.2025 // 15.00-18.00
Photo: Loïe Fuller
Sun 27.4.2025 // 15.00-18.00
Open Lab
Bräuhausgasse 40, 1050 Vienna // pay as you wish // Limited space – please register via imflieger@gmail.com
Experimental research-in-dialogue with artists and scientists, open to the public.
Project: Anat Stainberg, Martina Tritthart
Guests: Nicole Pruckermayr, Sara Zlanabitnig
Kindly supported by Stadt Wien Kulturabteilung MA7 (Arbeitsstipendium 2024).
Learning from Loïe is an afternoon of experimental research towards a multidisciplinary homage to Loïe Fuller (1862–1928). In dialogue with the conceptual artist and cultural anthropologist Nicole Pruckermayr and the musician Sara Zlanabitnig, the artists Anat Stainberg and Martina Tritthart invite you to explore Fuller’s legacy in an experimental spatial environment and with an open discussion. This experimental research-in-dialogue session will examine artistic freedom, multidisciplinarity, and the body’s transformation in the post-digital age and lays the groundwork for a performance honouring Fuller’s pioneering spirit.
Loïe Fuller was an inventor, performer, designer, and visionary. She created the first abstract dance sequence, revolutionised stage lighting, designed kinetic costumes, founded a dance school and supported artists of her time. Fuller was a true Renaissance woman, shaping her own artistic path beyond conventions. How can we implement the knowledge gained from historical masters in a way that fosters innovation rather than mere replication? Key aspects of Fuller’s legacy will guide the afternoon:
1. Freedom of movement beyond structures:
Fuller rejected institutional and patriarchal constraints, shifting from narrative-driven performance to abstraction. How can we apply her strategies for artistic freedom today and reclaim multidisciplinary approach as an asset?
2. The Body as Image and Machine:
Fuller’s Serpentine Dance transformed the female body in art, moving beyond traditional depictions toward a fusion of movement, light, and costume. In an age of AI and digital interfaces, how can Fuller’s radical approach inform our relationship with technology?
Anat Stainberg (IL/AT) is a performance and installation artist working as a performer, painter and curator. With a strong foundation in the performative arts, her practice navigates the space between emotional theatricality and visual minimalism, focusing mostly on the intriguing relationship between reality and fiction, object and shadow – and how these dualities can be explored and engaged within art. anat.klingt.org
Martina Tritthart (AT) works as an artist, curator and researcher in Vienna and Klagenfurt. Her work includes installation and media-art as well as filmmaking. It has a prominent focus on light as a medium, related to the perception of spaces. She completed her Ph.D. on “Light Spaces – Spatial Models of Perception” at the University of Technology in Graz and teaches since 1999. www.spacelab.at
Nicole Pruckermayr (AT) is a visual artist with a focus on conceptual art and art in public space. She prefers to work with social and physical spaces/places and acting people/human bodies to accommodate their gender and needs. She is particularly interested in the ability to act on different levels and the skin. Pruckermayr studied architecture at the University of Technology Graz, completed a doctorate in visual culture at the Vienna University of Technology and art anthropology at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She was a university assistant at the Institute for Contemporary Art at TU Graz for many years and has been the managing director of the Styrian Cultural Initiative since February 2023. nap.umlaeute.mur.at // friedenstische.mur.at // comradeconrade.mur.at
Sara Zlanabitnig (AT) is based in Vienna since 2005. Since completing her studies, she has dedicated her artistic interest to free improvised, experimental and electronic music, both as an active musician and as a cultural worker. She is an active part of the platform Frau*feld – for the visualization of female* musicians, the collective festival of the Viennese experimental music scene Jahresendzeitschokoladenhohlkörper, the cultural-political initiative mitderstadtreden and since the beginning of 2022 of the artistic direction at echoraum. A diversity-oriented, progressive and non-commercial (sub-)attitude are key concerns for her. As a flutist, Sara Zlanabitnig prefers to move in and between the fields of electronic and freely improvised new music. She searches for unusual sounds, explores the possibilities of using electronics and prefers false fingerings as well as quarter tones, harmonics and multiphonics. Borders between music styles are very open to her. https://sarazlanabitnig.com/