protect. there is no wind in geometrical worlds
It is a Duet with herself that Inge Gappmaier stages in protect. there is no wind in geometrical worlds, creating a dance performance in an atmosphere full of hypnotic tension. Embedded in a haunting soundscape, she reflects questions about an isolated, narcissistic self and its (self-)reflection in a digital world. ELIZA, the first chatbot, created in 1966, that imitates a psychologist and guides users into a conversation with themselves, serves as particular inspiration.
protect. there is no wind in geometrical worlds centers around digital self-observation and the difference between mirror image, virtuality and physical reality. Embedded in a haunting, uncanny soundscape, Gappmaier puts the human body in its self-contemplation between nature and digitality on stage. Particular inspiration for this ‘duet with oneself’ is drawn from the first chatbot ELIZA, created by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum as early as 1966, who imitates a psychologist following the method by Carl Rogers and guides users into a conversation with themselves.
In her performance, Gappmaier picks up on practices of self-constitution in social media, filter bubbles and the associated algorithms as well as methods of self-optimization in our society, reflecting matters of protective spaces, control and power structures, loneliness, self-confinement and duality. The piece invites audiences to delve into a multi-dimensional world of geometry, accumulation and intuition. Following the lockdown-related online premiere during COVID in 2021, the stage version of protect. there is no wind in geometrical worlds will now finally be performed live for the first time in Vienna.
TRAILER
TEASER
PROGRAMMHEFT inkl. Interview und Hintergrundinformationen
Interviews
5 Fragen an Inge Gappmaier zur Online-Premiere von „protect.“ | The GAP | 2021
Ein schwereloser Ort zum Staunen | brut Magazin | 2020
Ö1 Leporello | Interview zu protect. | Jänner 2021
Ankündigung auf der brut Website
https://brut-wien.at/de/Programm/Kalender/Programm-2025/01/Inge-Gappmaier
Ankündigungstext 2020/21
Eine hypnotische und spannungsgeladene Atmosphäre kreiert Inge Gappmaier in ihrem Tanzstück protect., in dem sie ein Duett mit sich selbst inszeniert. Untermalt von einer eindringlich-unheimlichen Soundkulisse reflektiert die Tänzerin Fragen nach dem isolierten und narzisstischen Selbst und dessen Spiegelung in der digitalen Welt.
Im Zentrum von protect. stehen die digitale Selbstbeobachtung und die Differenz zwischen Spiegelbild, Virtualität und körperlicher Realität. Eine besondere Inspiration dafür ist der von Joseph Weizenbaum 1966 ersten entwickelte Chat-Bot ELIZA, der nach dem Vorbild der Methode von Carl Rogers einen Psychologen imitiert und Nutzer:innen in einen Dialog mit sich selbst führt. Inge Gappmaier knüpft inhaltlich an Praktiken von Ich-Konstitution in sozialen Medien, Filterblasen und deren Algorithmen sowie Methoden der Selbstoptimierung in unserer Gesellschaft an. Was passiert mit dem konkreten Körper, wenn der Blick im eigenen Spiegelbild hängen bleibt? protect. bringt den Körper als Kontur zwischen Natur und Kultur in seiner Selbstbetrachtung auf die Bühne und stellt Fragen nach Schutzräumen, Kontroll- und Machtstrukturen sowie Einsamkeit und Dualität. Das Stück lädt ein in eine mehrdimensionale Welt von Geometrie, Akkumulation und Intuition einzutauchen.
Exzerpte während der Projektentwicklung
Mirroring
protect.
A haptic thing
Kritiken
protect. there is no wind in geometrical worlds
tanzschrift.at | 2025
DerStandard | 2025
DerStandard | 2021
protect. | Imagetanz-Zwischenbilanz | DerStandard | 2019
protect. | Inge Gappmaier bei imagetanz | tanz.at | 2019
protect. | Letters for later | brut Magazin | 2019
mirroring | Raw Matters #65: Tanz- und Performanceabend | tanzschrift.at | 2018
PREMIERE26. März 2020Premiere as Online-Filmscreening
12. November 2020
17. January 2021, brut Wien
Austrian Live-Premiere im brut Wien
23. January 2025
CREDITS
Artistic Direction and Dance Inge Gappmaier Technical Direction, Light Design and Dramaturgy Robert Läßig Dramaturgy Lisa-Marie Radtke, Stefanie Sommer Sounddesign Inge Gappmaier and Zsolt Bodoki-Halmen
Photography Natali Glišić
Filmversion:
Camera und Color Grading Lukas Schöffel Cut Maria Lisa Pichler
With special thanks to Gesa Bering, Stephan Dorn, Olivia Hild, Sara Lanner, Ricarda Sowa, Manuela Schaller and Martin Gappmaier as well as Fillimit@KoresponDance, Tranzit House and Reactor Cluj, Im_Flieger, Arbeitsplatz Wien and ttp WUK.
Stage, 45 min.
>> Anfrage: Link zum Video in gesamter Länge
A produktion by varukt and imagetanz/brut Wien.
The resumption in 2025 was supported by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna.
PRESS
„So beautiful. All of it. WOW!“
Audience
„Gappmaier is certainly one of the outstanding dancers in Vienna’s independent scene. In protect. she also demonstrates impressive qualities as a piece maker. With emotional accuracy, the artist immerses her character in the isolation bubbles of virtual social life.“
Helmut Ploebst, Der Standard | 19.01.2021
„What the video version of protect promised is fully realised in the theatre – especially as the political context of AI has become so much more acute in the past four years. An ‘intelligent’ device will never know what a human knows because it has no body, wrote Weizenbaum back in 1976 in his book Die Macht der Computer und die Ohnmacht der Vernunft.
Inge Gappmaier’s body is one that can articulate its reflection on Weizenbaum’s criticism with dancing movements. All the more poetic now in its physical presence, with which Gappmaier even manages to put a light at the end of the current tunnel for the human-automaton dilemma.
Helmut Ploebst, DerStandard | 24.01.2025
„(…) The stage character is alone with herself, the dancer and choreographer is not, she has an audience. The flowers on the meadow have faded, the stage is in twilight, blackouts interrupt the flow of the beautiful dance movements. The dancer on the empty stage sinks into blackness, then is dazzled again by white light. She is not alone, but lonely. She receives answers from the nothingness of this cold, unfeeling geometric world. (…) Gappmaier is both the dancer and her mirror. With different voice colours and differentiated movements, she communicates and dances with herself. (…) Very small, curled up in herself, the dancer sits on the dark, empty stage. Her loneliness and vulnerability are palpable, softened by the beauty of her movements. (…) It takes a while for the audience to emerge from their own absorption, wipe away the whirring thoughts and thank her with a fitting round of applause.„
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at | 25.01.2025
„The audience did not even dare to breathe audibly. A fascinating physical reflection on freedom and self-restraint“ Rando Hannemann zum Work-in-progress 2018, tanzschrift.at
Uraufführung: 26. März 2020 | 18 Uhr
27. und 28. März 2020 um 18 UhrUraufführung: 12. November 2020 | 19 Uhr
13. und 14. November 2020 um 19 Uhr
Uraufführung als Online-Filmscreening
17. Jänner 2021 | 19 Uhr
brut Wien
29. und 30. Oktober 2022
Albanian Dance Meeting in Tirana and Elbasan
23. bis 26. Jänner 2025
Österreichische Erstaufführung