STO Union/Nadia Ross

STO Union is a Canadian collective around exceptional artist Nadia Ross that has previously been seen in Vienna several times. STO Union will be putting together new projects on location in Vienna for the first time in March, for example the Community works! project Aha! Alt-Erlaa! that has been developed by and with locals of Alt-Erlaa. The collective will also be showing a work-in-progress performance of the new work Intimacy with a Thousand Things which deals with crises and the urgent desire for a “historical change” in difficult times. The piece, which is being further developed in Vienna, is loosely based on a week full of historical and personal dramas in Nadia Ross’s life and shows how personal crises often coincide with social upheavals. Over the course of seven days Ross’ colleague and friend of many years Tracy Wright died, her burial took place exactly during the G-20 Summit in Toronto. At the same time, an earthquake hit Ross’s hometown that put all of its inhabitants into a state of emergency, and finally, an important performance by Ross got cancelled. Intimacy with a Thousand Things is also a bit of a utopia that does not give up the hope that in times of personal and social crises in particular the formation of communities can offer a bit of hope.

Intimacy with a Thousand Things was initially created in co-operation with The Wakefield Art Collective – a loose group of artists in the small village of Wakefield, Canada. Together with STO Union they develop projects that will be continued later at other places, as they are doing now in Vienna. STO Union thus reverses the common path of art colonization from the country to the city and leaves the metropolises to go to the countryside.

182 Kelly is a radical alternative opposing the utopian belief in community expressed in Intimacy with a Thousand Things. It is a video about the attempt to fight against all exterior attacks and influences and to withdraw from any form of community. Roman Braglewicz’s parents were murdered by National Socialists when he was 15 years old. As a reaction to this he joined the Résistance and learned to fight and to kill.

At some point he found himself back in Canada and built a house there in the middle of nowhere designed to perfectly protect against intruders and to guarantee absolute independence from society. Using video observation of the house, STO Union searches for the origins of the desire to no longer participate with the world at large. www.stounion.com

Audience talk on 22 March after the show.

Creative team Nadia Ross, Sarah Conn, Michael Schiesser Technical direction Rob Scott Tour manager/agent Sarah Rogers Associate artist George Acheson Design/pictures/video The Wakefield Art Collective

A co-production by STO Union, brut Wien, and The Wakefield Art Collective.
With the kind support of the Canada Council of the Arts.

€6/no cover charge with the brutkarte*