Lunchmeat Festival, tranzit.cz, the National Gallery Prague,
and Prague Art Week present the performance Hildegard of Bingen by Swiss
artist Nils Amadeus Lange. It will take place on Thursday, September 24 at 6:30
p.m. in the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace.
Through contemporary queer rituals, medieval chants, scents,
and movement, the performance brings to life the work of the medieval mystic,
healer, and thinker Hildegard of Bingen, which focused on plants, sexuality,
music, and the body. Admission is free of charge, subject to capacity. The
event is supported by the Pro Helvetia Foundation and the City of Zurich.
Nils Amadeus Lange works in Zurich as an artist,
performer, and lecturer. After studying theater at the Bern Academy of the
Arts, he expanded his practice to various media, while still keeping a focus on
dance and performance and developing numerous international projects. At the
center of his practice is the body, which functions as a means of
deconstructing social conventions and gender stereotypes.
For the past seven years Lange has been teaching and
developing curricula at various universities, in departments ranging from
fashion to acting to fine arts, photography, and performance, where he
implements alternative forms of learning and experimental approaches. He has
been awarded a number of art prizes, of which the 2023 Swiss Art Award and the
2022 Art Award of Canton Zurich stand out most prominently.
His works have been shown at various institutions such as
Kunstmuseum Zürich, Kunsthalle Basel, Kunsthalle Zürich, Manifesta 11 Zürich,
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Istituto Svizzero in
Rome, Belvedere 21 in Vienna, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Swiss Dance
Days, Zürich moves!, Gessnerallee Zürich, Frascati Amsterdam, ZÜRICH TANZT,
Berliner Festspiele, Kunsthalle Bern, Les Urbaines in Lausanne, Südpol Luzern,
Tanzhaus Zürich, CounterPulse in San Francisco, and Cabaret Voltaire in
Zürich.
Hildegard von Bingen, performance, 60 min.
Nils Amadeus Lange has long felt a deep admiration for the
composer, abbess, healer, botanist, and poet Hildegard von Bingen. In her texts
on female orgasm, her interpretation of the Bible, and her way of composing
music, he recognizes queer practices that are still visionary today. An
important figure of the twelfth century, her writings and scores have survived
to this day. In the performance, Lange examines the use of Hildegard von
Bingen’s phytological research and medieval, avant-garde musicological language
in contemporary performative rituals.
The artist and ethnobotanist Nils Amadeus Lange presents
a performance that explores the dramaturgical potential of the sense of smell:
He collects plants and resins and burns them in self-made, space-consuming vessels.
He complements this incense ritual with texts on sexuality by Hildegard von
Bingen examining the symbiosis of man and nature from a different perspective
and also comparing the natural with the supernatural. Thus, a new
reality and a different state of mind are created.
Concept, artistic direction, and performance: Nils Amadeus
Lange
Performance: Lisa Candidas, Flo Schlessmann
Singing and performance: Mario Espinoza, Catherine Schroeder
tranzit.cz is an initiative for contemporary art that has organized
the Biennale Matter of Art since 2020, with the 2026 edition currently in
progress. tranzit.cz is part of the tranzit.org network, whose principal
partner is ERSTE Foundation.
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