SungBengSitting

SunBengSitting is a piece straddling yodelling, folk dance and contemporary dance, a trip to the past and a playful, humorous search for identity. Austrian farm boy and performance artist Simon Mayer invites the audience to get to know his life, his contradictions and his indignation at having to submit to categories and conventions. Having grown up on a farm facing traditions, nature, youthful rebellion and a bucolic heavy metal band, Simon Mayer moved to Vienna in 1997, attended Vienna’s State Opera’s dance school, spent a season as an aspiring dancer in the corps de ballet and very unexpectedly landed in a world where the word “farmer” could be used as an insult. The move was equal parts deliverance and constraint. SunBengSitting – “Sunbeng” is a word in the Upper Austrian dialect that means the bench in the sun in front of the farmhouse – deals with questions that emerge between the poles of city and country, homeland and foreign lands, pigeonholing and artistic freedom.

Performance, Artistic Direction, Music | Simon Mayer
Sound and Live-Loop  | Pascal Holper
Lighting design | Lucas Gruber, Hannes Ruschbaschan
Production Management | Sophie Schmeiser
Artistic Guidance | Frans Poelstra

A co-production of Kopf hoch/Simon Mayer, brut Wien, FREISCHWIMMER 2014/15 and Im_flieger.
With the support of Elio Gervasi/raum 33, ROSAS, Kunstenzentrum BUDA, shareyourdarlings Plattform.
With the kind support of the Austrian Province of Upper Austria, the Office of the Federal Chancellor, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Brussels, the Capital Cultural Fund and the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs. Thanks to Kulturverein SPIEL, Trachtenverein Altstädter Bauerngmoa, die Goaßschnalzer Munderfing, Pramtaler Volkstanzgruppe, Fam. Mayer, Christian Schmeiser und Josef Schild