PAST PROJECTS
Chronological summary, followed by detailed descriptions below
2025 / STORIES OF SILKS AND SPIRITS - A MYTHOPOETIC MEDITATION
Collaboration with artist Chiara Camoni. Visitors of her exhibition showcasing plant spirits on silk were invited to join a poetic meditation session. In it, they listened to a tapestry of tales connecting humans to the wider sentient world & interacted with the artwork.
Keywords: DEEP ECOLOGY, NATURAL RE-CONNECTION, MEDITATION, MORE-THAN-HUMAN BEINGS
2021 / SCHABELPERCHTEN.
An eco-feminist reclamation of a female-exlusionary Austrian folk custom. The public intervention on Viennese Christmas Markets subverted gender norms and prompted people to reflect on their care work towards their community, and the natural world.
Keywords: EXCLUSIONARY FOLK CUSTOMS, RE-CONNECTION TO LAND AND FOLKLORE, ECO-FEMINISM, MYTH- & MEANING-MAKING
2020 / TIME CAPSULE 2050.
Online storytelling workshop for European Forum Alpbach, attended by 600 change-makers across the globe. Participants joined an imaginary time travel via collective storytelling to connect with unborn generations in order to recalibrate their own actions today.
Keywords: INTERGENERATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, EMPATHY, COLLECTIVE STORYTELLING, SPECULATIVE FUTURE-MAKING
2019 / POLITICIANS’ CLIMATE EXAM.
Artivist intervention for Fridays for Future. Politicians running for office were invited to sit a "climate exam", which was evaluated by Austria's leading climate scientists, challenged by students and broadcast live on the national Puls24 TV channel. Keywords: CLIMATE JUSTICE, GAMIFICATION, YOUTH ENGAGEMENT, POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY, PUBLIC DISCOURSE
2022 / TALES OF TODAY, DREAMS OF TOMORROW.
Collection of short stories pendulating between present and far future, actual biography and speculative fiction, people and non-human life, prose and poetry in an attempt to create an emotional connection to our common future and cultivate a sense of agency.
Keywords: INTERGENERATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, EMPATHY, REGENERATIVE PRACTICES, SENSE OF AGENCY, SPECULATIVE FUTURISM
2023 / MYCELIAL COMMUNITY-MAKING
This workshop for remote rural communities encouraged participants to forge stronger collective ties, inspired by mycelial structures. After knowledge sharing on fungal intelligence, participants inoculating mushrooms together and cooked and shared mushroom meals.
Keywords: BIOMIMICRY, RURAL COMMUNITY-BUILDING, MORE-THAN HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
2024 / HEARTH HIVE INSTALLATION.
Commissioned for the Wellbeing Project, a Georgetown University initiative: A bio-art installation inspired by the wisdom of a beehive. Visitors enter a “Hive Space” featuring honeycomb sculptures and a bee soundscape. After a storytelling performance with multimedia animations, visitors communicate with bees through the sculpture & join a “Collective Storytelling for Social Change” Research Lab.
Keywords: SOCIAL BIOMIMICRY, HIVE MIND, BIO ART, NATURE-CONNECTION, COLLECTIVE STORYTELLING, SOCIAL CHANGE
STORIES OF SILKS AND SPIRITS.
- A MYTHOPOETIC MEDITATION
Collaboration with Italian artist Chiara Camoni and her artwork depicting vegetal spirits on silk. Visitors of her exhibition in Krizanke Church, Ljubljana were invited to join my performance at the intersection of mythopoetic storytelling, deep ecology and guided meditation. In the cocoon-like sensory environment of the church, participants were invited to ground themselves in the present moment, reconnect with other sentient beings and the land itself. In the poetic performance, I conjured a tapestry of tales that weaves ties between the plant & silk artwork, participants and the entire sentient world. You can listen to the meditation here:
HEARTH HIVE PROJECT.
Hearth Hive is a mythological reimagining: what advice would bees give us about transforming our societies? What secrets would they hum about life, caring for each other, mending our estrangement from nature? An immersive experience, featuring a bio-art installation, an oral storytelling performance and a Collective Action Artistic Research lab, this is the largest artwork in the portfolio and an ongoing community project. There is an entire subpage dedicated to it with detailed information, videos and articles: Bee Art
MYCELIAL
COMMUNITY-MAKING.
This workshop was co-created with a rural Austrian community hub focussing on topics like permaculture, community support, craftsmanship and ecological knowledge. Participants living in remote rural areas were invited to forge stronger collective ties, inspired by mycelial structures. After a theoretical input on the fantastic world of funghi, both edible and medicinal, the new knowledge was anchored not only in the heads, but also hands and heart, by inoculating mushrooms together on a variety of substrates (straw, wood, coffee) and sharing a communal mushroom meal.
TALES OF TODAY -
DREAMS OF TOMORROW.
This collection of short stories pendulates between present and far future, actual biography and speculative fiction, people and non-human life, prose and poetry in an attempt to create an emotional connection to our common future. Asking questions like “How do we become good ancestors?”, “Who is your non-human kin?” or “Can trees run away from climate catastrophes?”, the visions depicted in the book are neither black nor white, neither utopian nor dystopian, but whimsically suprising, vibrant and hopeful. Because our future will not be better or worse than the present. Simply different. Readers are encouraged to imagine such alternative futures for themselves, strengthen their sense of agency - and have an enormous amount of fun while doing so.
It is available only in German and can be purchased here.
SCHNABELPERCHTEN.
This public intervention in collaboration with artist Franziska Graf was a response to an Alpine tradition called “Perchten-Läufe”. In these folkloristic parades, devil-like creatures drive out bad spirits around the midwinter period. They are led by a female figure called “Frau Percht” who was originally a pagan goddess known for being nurturing towards children and nature. Despite its historical roots , this tradition only allows men to participate in the parade, dress up as Perchten and whip people with chains.
This is especially perverse in the case of Schnabelperchten, a sub-category of Perchten from the Tyrolean Rauris region. Here, the figures are depicted as female bird creatures, yet again inhabited solely by men. Often, the older meanings and connections to nature have been lost in the parades.
In an eco-feminist reclamation of Austrian folklore, the Schnabelperchten were reintroduced at Vienna’s Christmas market and reconnected to their ancient roots. Instead of being whipped, passers-by were prompted to reflect on entering the midwinter period by caring for themselves, their community, and the natural world.
TIME CAPSULE 2050.
Hybrid storytelling workshop for six hundred change-makers across the globe. Developed and facilitated for European Forum Alpbach. Participants travelled through time via communal storytelling. By activating their imagination, the emotional divide between ancestors and descendants, present and future was bridged. After putting themselvces into the shoes of people in the far future, they wrote letters to future change-makers, which were put in a time capsule to be opened in 2050.
POLITICIANS’ CLIMATE EXAM.
As part of the Fridays for Future strategy team, we conceptualised an artivistic intervention for the 2019 Austrian National Council elections: Politicians running for office were invited to sit a "climate exam", which was broadcast live on the national Puls24 TV channel. Candidates from the entire political landscape accepted the challenge, with the exception of the right-wing Freedom Party. Being put back into the shoes of pupils, they had to present their respective plans for reaching the national Paris climate targets. These were analyzed and evaluated by Austria's leading climate scientists, Gottfried Kirchengast and Karl Steininger (University Graz) Helga Kromp-Kolb (University for Life Sciences Vienna) and Sigrid Stagl (University for Business and Economics Vienna). The event was moderated by Johannes Stangl, activist and complexity scientist, Corinna Milborn, TV anchor, and me. The audience consisted of students, who questioned the politicians about their responsibility for the welfare of future generations.