Smash Success for Linz09 in Avignon with Empire (ART & POLITICS)

Press release
Monday, 21 July 2008

Following the sensational world premiere of “Empire (Art & Politics)” in mid-June in Paris, the play by Superamas, a French-Austrian artists’ collective, has now gotten an extraordinarily enthusiastic reception in Avignon at one of Europe’s most prestigious festivals. Linz09’s first co-production played to sell-out crowds and thus met—and even exceeded—all expectations.

“Empire (Art & Politics)” will be performed in Linz in mid-January 2009 at Linz09’s Theater Mania 1: Snowstorm festival.

EMPIRE is set on a historical battlefield where, in masterful, confusing and charming fashion, it involves the audience in a debate about power and art.

In May 1809 Emperor Napoleon’s troops crossed the Danube just outside Vienna to crush the army of Archduke Charles. 40,000 died within two days. The battle, in which both sides claimed victory, unites all the contradictions of modernity. In this new work, Superamas’ approach is to play with the mechanisms of portraying historical and political facts, and to call them into question. Their work sheds light of different strategies of communication. “Empire (Art & Politics)” unfolds in the form of actions repeatedly staged anew.
Superamas came together as an artists’ collective in 1999. Following two successful productions in 2002, they settled down in Vienna. The Austrian-French group went on to develop their BIG series that involved tours with a wide variety of European collaborators. Superamas has made a name for itself as a dance company, a theater group, and as a developer of purely visual works.

Directed and produced by Superamas

With: Roch Baumert, Alix Eynaudi, Davis Freeman, Magda Loitzenbauer, Ariane Loze, Jamal Mataan, Anna Mendelssohn, Diederik Peeters, Faris-Endris Rahoma, Rachid Sayet and Superamas
Co-produced/commissioned by Parc de La Villette-Paris, Buda Arts Center-Kortrijk, Kaaitheater-Brüssel and Workspace Brussels. In cooperation with wp zimmer-Antwerpen, Centre Choregraphique National – Montpellier as part of the hors-series, CCLinz, CNEAI-Paris.

With the support of the City of Vienna / Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture / Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d'Ile-de-France, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, France

A project of Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture