Home­sick
Festi­val

Homesick Festival presents a series of performances that take place in private homes. Conceived and organized by Michikazu Matsune, the frist edition was launched in 2017 and joined by Thomas Geiger, Marlene Hausegger, Barbara Kraus, Andrea Maurer, Frans Poelstra and Oleg Soulimenko.

Welcomed into over 30 homes, the project was received with zealous interest and enthusiasm by the residents of Vienna. Audience situations varried from a home-party with over 30 people on a Saturday night to an intimate group of 5 people on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks to all the hosts who welcomed us into their homes, and their friends, family and neighbours who made this a great experience altogether!

Artists

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  Thomas Geiger

  Originally from Germany, he has lived in cities including Paris, Brussels, Johannesburg and Vienna. Thomas Geiger is working on his extended understanding of sculptural and performative practice. His wide range of artistic activities includes self-organized projects such as Kunsthalle3000 that presents performative works in non-specific-site-specific outdoor locations and The Festival of Minimal Actions which is dedicated to reenactments of public-space interventions of various artists. He is also a co-founder of Mark Peziger Verlag that publishes artists' books. Above all, Thomas is probably best known for his life-long performance I want to become a millionaire.
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  Marlene Hausegger

  Born and raised in a Styrian town of Austria, she lives and works mostly in Vienna. Marlene Hausegger's work varies from colorful drawings to humoristic sculptures to unnoticeable interventions. Public spaces, urban non-sites and excluded sectors of society have drawn her interest for the past few years. Her main artistic tool is to deal with contradictions of our globalized contemporary society. She is always interested in reflecting upon specific contexts of the environment she works in. Her work is influenced by intensive traveling and working experiences in other countries, prompted by curiosity and a love of adventure. Marlene likes surprises.
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  Barbara Kraus

  Lives and works in Vienna. Barbara Kraus is an artist with diverse approaches, ranging from solo stage-performances, humorous social interventions, participatory community projects to concerts. Her work is inspired by her ongoing interest in social, political, philosophical, ecological and gender questions. With her Life-Art-Performance dream and walk about in 2012, she crossed the Alpine mountains from Vienna to Nice on foot and published a travelogue-book. For the pasr 17 years, Barbara has repeatedly appeared as Johnny, a clever artificial agent and a blind philosopher whose mission is to make the unforeseen happen and to bring thoughts to dance.
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  Michikazu Matsune

  Born in Kobe and lives in Vienna. Michikazu Matsune is a performance-artist who works in various presentation formats, spaces and contexts. His focus lies in testing poetic absurdity in order to reflect on our society critically and playfully. His interdisciplinary works investigate relationships between body and objects, space and behaviour. Growing up in a seaside town, he spent his childhood splasing in the water and playing on the sand at a nearby beach. His interest and curiosity in different cultures led him to move to another continent as a late teenager. Since then he has been repeatedly asked if he ever is homesick. He always answered "no" - until recently. Michikazu bungee-jumped once in his life.
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  Andrea Maurer

  Projects of Andrea Maurer manifest in different media and formats such as live-performances, installations, objects, poems, love-letters, radio-shows, videos, telephone talks, typographical interventions, excavation pits, bars... Her work often deconstructs its own framework and subverts its own content. Already as a child she always liked to take things apart. She was born and raised in Salzburg where things don´t change much and where it rains a lot. She has traveled extensively and in most cases has reached her destinations via detours. Andrea has a 7 year old son, a few lovers and many friends.
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  Frans Poelstra

  Born and raised in the Netherlands. As a kid Frans Poelstra stared more often into the water of the canals in Amsterdam than being at school. He dreamt of becoming the next Jimi Hendrix but had no talent in playing the guitar. Now he still does not have degree but kept his dreams. He works in theatre, the place where you can professionally dream. He makes work which mixes dance with acting, music with visual arts, in a way which makes people think: ”Am I dreaming, is this really possible or at least acceptable?”
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  Oleg Soulimenko

  Born far away and living near you. Oleg Soulimenko is a father and artist who likes doing too many different things. He grew up in a huge city where it was not allowed to listen to rock'n'roll and to dance with naked a torso but he did both. For the last 20 years he's lived in a city that is tousands of miles away from that place. Oleg is well known as a long time survivor in a country of which he cannot speak the language. His work is recognizable through his very personal style and autobiographical contexts.