Short Theatre 2022 inaugurates its 17th edition with the installation 40 Portraits (2003—2008), in the Padiglione 9b of the Mattatoio di Roma, a portrait exhibition that accompanies the festival throughout its duration like a taut thread, giving access to the festival and to PRISMA dedicated to Gisèle Vienne. In 40 Portraits (2003—2008) spectators will be able to closely observe the photographs of the silent faces of the dolls created by the artist since 2003, in their suspension between childhood and adulthood, between living and inanimate bodies, subjects/objects that crowd the imaginary of the artist’s work, summoning themes that recursively permeate her work: liminality between love, affection, and violence.
The opening of the installation, and of the festival, is animated by the poetic and enchanting electronic music of the musician and dj Eva Geist.
Gisèle Vienne is a Franco-Austrian artist, choreographer and director. After graduating in Philosophy, she studied at the puppeteering Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette. She works regularly with the writer Dennis Cooper, and with other artistic figures including the recently deceased Austrian composer of experimental electronic music, Peter Rehberg (aka Pita).
Over the past 20 years, her work has been touring in Europe and regularly performed in Asia and in America, among which, I Apologize (2004), Kindertotenlieder (2007), Jerk (2008), This is how you will disappear (2010), LAST SPRING: A Prequel (2011), The Ventriloquists Convention (2015) in collaboration with Puppentheater Halle and Crowd (2017) and L’Etang (The Pond) (2020). In 2020, she created with Etienne Bideau-Rey the fourth version of Showroomdummies at the Rohm Theater Kyoto, originally created in 2001 and in 2021 she directed the movie Jerk.
Gisèle Vienne has frequently been exhibiting her photographs in museums among which the New York Whitney Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires and Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. She has published two books: JERK / Through Their Tears and 40 PORTRAITS 2003-2008 (2012). Her work has led to various publications and the original music of her shows to several albums.
Eva Geist is an electronic singer and composer. She works and lives between Berlin and Rome, and has classical training in piano and singing while her experimental path focuses on live performance and sound design. Important influences for her are the new age, the pioneers of electronics, synth-pop and krautrock, italo disco, experimental electronic music and psychedelic pop. Her music creates enchanting atmospheres and chases feverish landscapes, combining poetry with electronic roots.
Geist publishes for several international labels and has shared numerous collaborations. Her debut album Desfãn, was released on the Macadam Mambo label in 2018, and in 2019 she released the EP Urban Monogamy on Hivern Discs. Among her parallel projects and collaborations there is the group Le Rose, which released their first self-titled album in 2010, Il Quadro di Troisi, formed with Donato Dozzy and Pietro Micioni, and the duo As Longitude with Laura ODL as well as the visual music project Aqua Mantras in collaboration with Maria Torres, premiered at Barcelona’s Mira Festival in November of 2021.