Vienna, Austria – A new performance event, Ganymed Bridge, takes place in Vienna from May to October 2023. The event is a collaboration between the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum.
The event features a whole 15 different performances, including music, theater, dance, and spoken word. The performers are drawn from around the world, and they have created new works specifically for the event, with some new texts being written and then interpreted in creative ways. The staged works explore the themes of nature, culture, and the human condition, and how we coexist – or not – with non-human nature.
Ganymed Bridge is a unique opportunity to experience the intersection of art and nature. The event is unique and unforgettable, performances are visually stunning, with striking content, and musically evocative. I have been deeply touched by this (and previous) Ganymed events. It is an intense evening, somewhat overwhelming in its format of multiple performances, which stir up emotions and provoke viewers to think about what humanity is wreaking on the world.
In the KHM, performances relate to paintings much like in previous years, often in rather surprising ways. (My personal favourite was Grischka Voss performing a very amusing piece called “concerning the unicorn” – see title image – in front of the painting Hl. Justina by Alessandro Bonvicino, which features, of course, a unicorn.) Collecting, preparing, categorizing: we witness the late 19th century craze for collecting animals as scientific samples on the NHM’s side of the spectacle. For example, Lukas Lauermann plays the cello under a moonfish, while two delightful Cuban dancers tell their story around a glass-encased giant spider crab.
I would recommend this for anyone interested in art, nature, or simply a beautiful experience. At each location you will see seven scenes lasting between 7-12 minutes. When you have seen all the scenes in one house, you amble over to the other museum across the plaza – which is “bridged” by a performance in front of the Maria-Theresia Memorial.
Spoken performances are in German, but there is also dance and music, so it has something even for non-German speakers.
Tickets for Ganymed Bridge are available now.
For more information, please visit the event website.
More Info on the KHM website. I am very grateful to have been invited to attend this as part of a group from Instagramers Austria and Instagramers Vienna. Thanks to the creators and to the social media team of both museums for the opportunity!
Cover image: Grischka Voss as unicorn in “Concerning das Einhorn” by Teresa Präauer
You can see a few more of my impressions in the slide show below.
Belgian writer @amelie.nothomb resurrects Jesus in front of Titian’s painting ‘Ecce Homo’. In this scene, Jesus is played by Raphael van Bargen 
Grischka Voss as unicorn 
Die Strottern (Klemens Lendl & David Müller) on the work: South American King Vulture by Jan Weenix 
Maria Romei “Einen Namen haben” 
Lukas Lauermann 
Manaho Shimokawa performing Nest 
Christian Nickel performing “Gespräch mit meinem Marder” by Martin Pollack 
Hungarian composer and percussionist András Dés about the Gorilla in a piece called “Personal Growth”
ViennaCultgram 
Wow–this looks and sounds absolutely enthralling, Karin, if not necessarily edifying. The fact that humans have wreaked such havoc on our home planet will not allow the observer to leave without feeling sad, if not devastated, I imagine.
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Thank you, Tanja. It is indeed riveting, and, as you correctly observe, left me with sadness – but one that I have long felt.
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