Program-Flyer
to download

Plakat
to download

Program
to download

"Obstacles - Hindernisse" is this year's festival theme of VISUAL 17, the European & International Visual Theatre Festival taken from the motto of the deafblind writer and human rights activist Helen Keller and Samuel G. Howe, the director of the Perkins Institute For The Blind in Boston. Because "Obstacles are there to be overcome" Samuel G. Howe has ensured that even the Deafblind have to have full access to education.And the Vienna based philosopher, progessive educationalist and pacifist Wilhelm Jerusalem found out the literary talent of Helen Keller. And both have been in 1913 co-founders of the first Viennese Deafblind Institute. These have been milestones in education as the festival VISUAL is in the world of art and theatre. Since more than 30 years I see, how a small language, namely the sign language of the Deaf comes more and more to public. In 1984 I directed the play “Children of A Lesser God” at the Austrian State Theatre of Tyrol and worked with deaf persons for and in the production and for a deaf audience. This small language is everybody's first language. That knowledge is also a result of the work of William Stern and Wilhelm Jerusalem. Stern has done research work mostly about deaf children. Jerusalem intensively works on the world of touch in connection with world of the Deafblind. Touch is the quintessential source of all human relationships. And with gestures, we all begin to speak. This small language is the native language of the deaf, hearing impaired and CoDA (Child of Deaf Adult). I am impressed by this small language developing in the world of theatre for many years. And it is simpressive to see how this language works in the theatre space. Together with with the best deaf directors and actors in the world (among them Howie Seago and Ramesh Meyyappan) we can give this language a proper stage as Visual Theatre. And deaf, hearing impaired, CoDA and hearing artists are performing together on stage or being part of the audience. A lot of ideas are often linked to music. Both deaf and deafblind people can feel music. The deafblind Laura Bridgman could even play the piano! In the world of theatre the inclusion succeeded. Performances are multilingual, accessibility is implemented artistically. Because the world of the arts can not afford unnecessary fights as reality does.!

Directed by: Herbert Gantschacher
Stage & Costume designed by: Sanzaba Dimna
Lighting designed by: Bidpai
Piano: Rita Hatzmann
Performed by: Werner Mössler, Markus Pol, Markus Rupert and Rita Hatzmann

Directed by: Herbert Gantschacher
Stage & Costume designed by: Sanzaba Dimna
Lighting designed by: Bidpai
Piano: Rita Hatzmann
Performed by: Werner Mössler, Markus Pol, Markus Rupert and Rita Hatzmann

Artistic manifestos and new artistic movements are always being found in hours Big Breaks. Such an era were the times before the Great War, during the Great War 1914-1918 and after the Great War and artistic manifestos and movements were defining elements.
One of the best known manifestos that time is the "futurist manifesto" by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). The Italian futurists saw themselves as avant-garde. They dreamed also the "dream of artistic war".
DADA or Dadaism was an artistic and literary movement starting at Zurich in 1916 by rejecting the  "conventional" distinguished art. One of the hallmarks of the DADA movement was the sound poem. Essentially DADA has been a revolt against art and the part of the artist himself, who rejected the society and its value system.
A "Warlike Tribe" is marching in the picture of Paul Klee (1879-1940), published by Herwath Walden  (1878-1941) in his gallery and magazine "Der Sturm" in 1916 in Berlin. Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915)  parodied in his "Revolutionary Theater Library" the "American Dream". Paul Scheerbart died on October 15, 1915 due to a stroke. From Walter Mehring comes the unproven assertion Scheerbart died of exhaustion. As a convinced pacifist he had refused each food and drinking as a protest against The Great War.
Created by Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) for first time his Dadaist composition entitled "Precision, ladies and gentlemen, is the main thing" from the time of the Great War - composed on August 11 1917 – comes to a performance.
In the depths of The House, Court and State Archives for more than hundred years another piece of DADA waited for its discovery. In a secret correspondence from the year 1915 between the Royal-Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza in Budapest and the Imperial and Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Imperial and Royal House Burián in Vienna it is pointed out that a certain Johann Dada admits blame for the start of World War One in the year 1914. This DADA-document is now unveiled exclusively in theatre performance in the original language to the public.
During the time of The great War in 1917 at Leiden (Netherlands), the artist group "De Stijl". Their concern is completely turn away from the presentation principles of traditional art and by developing a new, totally abstract language on the variation of a few elementary principles of visual design (horizontal / vertical, large / small, light / dark, and the primary colors). This means the reduction of colors on the three primary colors red, yellow and blue as well as the non-colors black, gray and white.
In response to the revolutionary conditions in November 1918 the November Group has be constituted including artists, architects, writers and composers. They took part or the influence on art policy, such as the involvement in public construction projects in the art legislation and in the allocation of exhibition spaces, and organized numerous events with the visual arts and also events such as evening concerts with compositons of contemporary music and new films.
The reality of war has described in August 1918 by the physician and physiologist Friedrich Georg Nicolai (1874-1964): "Now I know the war; Now I know what terrible power the demons of the past also we have on modern people and now I hate war - at least the war of the twentieth century." And Nicolai was the doctor of the German Empress. Friedrich Georg Nicolai was also the research worker and writer of the fundamental work "The Biology of War", in which he proved the futility of war.
One hundred years ago in the years 1916 and 1917 the "DaDa" movement in the world has been created as a protest against the war!

Directed by: Marika Antonova and Jolanta Znotina
Performed by: Jolanta Znotina and Lievi Lipa

Directed by: Josef Tichý
Performed by: Zlata Kurcová, Markéta Maradová, Tereza Hromátková, Stanislav Kleisner, Antonin Zralý, Pavel Barták, Oldřich Bajer and Šimon Skopový

The impressions of nature and landscapes are presented as visual theatre, the memory of a butterfly is the beginning of history, the memories of love stories. And don’t miss the circus with his enchantments, or the chase of police in the style of Charles Chaplin, the great masters of the visual theatre.

Directed by: Marika Antonova
Piano: Hemma Tuppy
Performed by: Liena Čerepko, Maiga Elbrote, Biruta Lasmane, Anita Atrazsko, Dace Vingre and Juris Elbrots

Directed by: Eva Krásenská
Visual Desgin: Austra Hauks and Jänis Pitens
Performed by: Jolanta Znotina, Liva Liepa and Aija Treimane