October 18 | 11:00 – ARCUB, Main Hall
FREE ADMISSION
A talk with the artist about backstage stories, biographies, and performance in the camera obscura.
In English, without translation.
Video excerpts subtitled in Romanian.
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Producer: Forumul Cultural Austriac/ Austrian Cultural Forum
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#implicAT – Three Performative Projects for the Austrian Micro-Section of the Romanian National Theatre Festival #35
#implicAT înseamnă o expoziție, un „artist talk” despre o viitoare coproducție ambițioasă între România și Austria, dar și impactul unei instalații-performance internaționale în România, care confirmă paleta de semnificații a temei „Te privește!” Forumul Cultural Austriac și UNITER își dezvoltă astfel colaborarea dinamică și variată, începută în 2022, care urmărește strângerea și diversificarea relațiilor dintre artiștii din domeniul teatral și al performance-ului din cele două țări.
From the stage to everyday life – ideas for a society that pays more attention to people. At the invitation of UNITER – the Romanian Theatre Union, the Austrian Cultural Forum responds once again in 2025 to the theme of the 35th National Theatre Festival – „Te privește!”* – with three original projects that bring Austrian and Romanian performing arts into dialogue, under the title and theme #implicAT.
At the intersection of theatre with photography, literature, video, performance, and other artistic forms, these three proposals bring to the foreground socially engaged artists who encourage audiences to move beyond conformism, sharpen their critical gaze, and embrace civic spirit.
Developed in Romania, in Austria, and across the two countries, the series of initiatives #implicAT is in illustration ot the curatorial statement of the artistic directors of the RNTF35: theatre critics Raluca Cîrciumaru and Alina Epîngeac, cultural journalist and playwright Ionuț Sociu, and its associate artist, director Radu Afrim: “a call to solidarity and civic responsibility at a turning point for society as a whole, as well as an affirmation of the aesthetic and dialogic flow between artist and audiences.”
#implicAT comprises an exhibition, an artist talk about an ambitious forthcoming Romanian–Austrian co-production, and the Romanian presentation of an international performance-installation. Together, these projects enrich the spectrum of meanings evoked by the festival theme, Te privește!: „the reflexivity of the gaze that mirrors reality through the artistic act, the taking on of responsibility and conscious engagement, the act of looking as an active bridge between stage and audience, the interdependent relationship of past–present–future with emphasis on the tradition–innovation binomial”.
Through #implicAT, the Austrian Cultural Forum and UNITER further expand their dynamic collaboration begun in 2022, aiming to deepen and diversify the connections between theatre and performance artists from both countries.
*We chose not to translate the motto Te privește! as it carries a wide spectrum of meanings in this context and encompasses multiple dimensions: the reflexivity of the gaze that mirrors reality through the artistic act, the taking on of resposibility and conscious engagement, the act of looking as an active bridge between stage and audience, the interdependent relationship of past–present–future with emphasis on the tradition–innovation binomial. Te privește! means equally: it concers you! and it looks at you/ it beholds you! and even – in a poetic, archaic romanian – look at yourself/ behold thyself!
“What do you know about your mother’s childhood?” is one of the central questions in the projects of Viennese artist Franzi Kreis, whose interdisciplinary practice connects theatre, biography, photography, and live performance in the camera obscura.
She has developed a unique form of onstage development of the photographic image as performance, combining theatre with analogue processes – a concept presented in 47 sold-out performances of Die Scham (Shame) after Annie Ernaux, at the Volkstheater in Vienna.
Franzi Kreis’s works have been shown in numerous countries worldwide. In Austria, she regularly collaborates with Wiener Festwochen and Wiener Staatsoper. Her first photo album, Limelight, was published in 2020. Current projects include a graphic novel about jazz musician Herbert Pixner and a solo exhibition in Buenos Aires in December 2025. She is also preparing a Romanian–Austrian theatre co-production for 2026–2028.
As part of the RNTF 35, Franzi Kreis will lead a conversation with Romanian-Austrian theatre critic specialising in Austrian theatre Irina Wolf and will present video excerpts of her projects.