Maria Hassabi: HERE – A Live Choreographic Installation at Secession Wien Exploring Time and Presence

Secession Wien and Wiener Festwochen present 'HERE,' a new commissioned work by artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi. The live installation features six dancers sharing the exhibition space with visitors, performing a slow-paced choreography set to a sound composition that counts seconds, emphasizing the passage of time.

Secession Wien, in collaboration with Wiener Festwochen, proudly presents 'HERE,' a significant commissioned work by artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi. This exhibition, which premiered in Vienna before touring to Athens and Turin, offers a unique live installation experience. Visitors are invited to share the exhibition space with six dancers who engage in a choreography that unfolds at a deliberately slow pace. Set against a sound composition featuring a counting voice that marks the seconds, the work emphasizes the relentless progression of time. Through their decelerated movements, the dancers create a constantly shifting present, alluding to the elusive nature of 'here.' In extended phases of stillness, the dancers challenge their presence, blurring the lines between exhaustion and rest, self-sufficiency and crisis. This apparent passivity is the result of extreme physical precision and self-control, where subtle movements like trembling muscles, blinking eyes, and visible breathing draw attention back to the present moment for both performers and viewers. Since the early 2000s, Maria Hassabi has cultivated a distinct choreographic language focused on stillness, slowness, and the ambiguous status of moving bodies. Her internationally recognized works are conceived in dialogue with specific architectural contexts and the conventions of the spaces in which they are presented, be it theaters, museums, or public areas. Hassabi's live installations translate the principles of performing arts into an exhibition format, often extending over days or weeks and adapting to the institution's opening hours. The works prioritize silence and deceleration as both technique and theme, exploring the performative bodies as they oscillate between dance and sculpture, subject and object, the living body and the still image. This approach allows visitors to navigate the exhibition freely while engaging with the live bodies as both physical forms and multifaceted images.

Information regarding tickets can be found via the provided link to the Secession shop. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Wiener Festwochen, suggesting a context of major cultural programming which may have specific admission policies or recommendations available through official channels.