SZENE
Salzburg

The experimental music theatre production REALITY BANG by the Finnish performance group Oblivia is the next installment in their TURN TURTLE TURN series, which deals with the Anthropocene. Following the world premiere of Part 1 of the series at the Munich Biennale 2024, Oblivia continues its critical yet playful exploration of the human-made geological era with REALITY BANG, reflecting on the so-called "Big Bang of Reality"—a moment when society inevitably begins to feel the consequences of human-caused climate change.

But how did we get here? Why is our response to the climate crisis so often shaped by deep cynicism and ongoing exploitation? In pursuit of these questions, Oblivia takes the audience on a multifaceted and at times erratic performative journey between despair and hope, exploring the possibility of dissolving and reinterpreting the Anthropocene’s worldview as an era of human dominance. The result is a layered stage narrative crafted with minimal means, where the distant past confronts a critical present and wrestles with an uncertain future.

In a carefully orchestrated interplay of music, percussion, voice, movement, stage action, costume and lighting design, paired with Oblivia’s signature blend of humor and complexity, Reality Bang immerses itself in a highly charged here and now, where everything is at stake for humanity.

REALITY BANG, which after its world premiere at ARGEkultur as part of the Sommerszene has also been invited as the opening production of the HEROINES OF SOUND festival in Berlin, continues the fruitful collaboration begun in 2020 with the award-winning composer Yiran Zhao. Together, they expand the language of contemporary music theatre and once again bring profound questions of human existence to the stage with lightness, wit, and conceptual precision.

Founded in 2000, Oblivia have been creating performances out of movement, dance, language, sound, light and gestures for over twenty years. Oblivia’s performances develop a unique atmosphere of nonchalant vitality while pondering almost philosophical questions. It is this atmosphere which renders their works enigmatic and relatable to the audience at the same time. In recent years, Oblivia has ventured more and more into the field of experimental music theatre.

The performance of Reality Bang will be accompanied online by the Museum of Oblivia's Performance Art (MOOPA), both a digital exhibition and an interactive game. On June 17 at 6:00 PM, there will be a talk on this project at ARGEkultur (free admission, registration requested)

In English.

Artist Talk: June 20 after the performance

Artistic direction, concept, text: Oblivia
Performance: Timo Fredriksson, Anna-Maija Terävä, Annika Tudeer, Juha Valkeapää, Nagisa Shibata (Percussion), Yiran Zhao (Electronic Live Music)
Composition: Yiran Zhao
Lightdesign, Projektionen: Meri Ekola
Costume design: Tua Helve
Graphicdesign: Jenni Salminen (Röd)
Communication: Essi Brunberg & Nassrah-Alexia Denif
Productionsmanagement: Jenny Nordlund
Coproduced by ARGEkultur Salzburg und Oblivia
Supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Svenska kulturfonden, City of Helsinki, Konstsamfundet, Stiftelsen Tre Smeder
Artist in Residence at Musiktheatertage Wien

• oblivia.fi