Lau Lukkarila & Zeynab Kirikou Gueye - Hold yr ache 2 my ache

“Hold yr ache 2 my ache” uses sound, dance and text to search for cadence of resilience. At the center of the artistic research is the motif of a wholesome corporeality in constant negotiation with the constraints of productivity, structural oppression as well as the appeals of affect. Simply feeling it all.

The artists are interested in what it means to acknowledge the agency of emotional and somatic experience in staying with what is present by placing this agency in the center of how they live in and relate to an unjust and lethal system. “Hold yr ache 2 my ache” artists work in the junction of hope and desperation of their own embodied conditioning, maintaining an inquiry towards performative strategies that utilise ›masks‹ (such as pseudo or faking) that could allow truths to reveal. Movement, voice and text serve as the elemental building blocks of the expressive repertoire and the work in the studio holds space for imagination, criticism, desire, grief, pain and intimacy. They maintain as students to what has been said and felt before by thinkers, feelers, activists and mothers* who have rendered each other capable through friendship and conflict that can lead to emotional and political revelations.

The residency at STUK is the first working period to bring together the three performers of the work: Zeynab Kirikou Gueye, Lau Lukkarila and Marika Peura. For the final days of the residency the team will be accompanied by Claire Lefèvre, a performance doula whose position in the team professionalises and de-invisibilises care work in the field of performance arts.

TEAM / CREDITS

Artistic direction and performance: Lau Lukkarila and Zeynab Kirikou Gueye
Performance: Marika Peura
Stage and costume design: Ju Aichinger and Val Holfeld
Performance doula: Claire Lefèvre, mirabella paidamwoyo dziruni
Production: Laura Hähnel
Coproduction: not your babe & Tanzquartier Wien
With kind support of: the City of Vienna Culture Department and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sports Austria, STUK and Workshop Foundation co-financed by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union in the frame of Life Long Burning

Zeynab Kirikou Gueye (they/them) (*26.5.1999, Prague) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, sound technician, community organizer, and a DJ based in Vienna. Their practice is influenced by their interest in naturalcultural ecologies, research in postcolonial studies and the abilities to dream of visionary futurisms amidst social depression. Since 2017, they are articulating the intersections of their different artistic and curious practices mainly through the study of music, performance, and the politics of the dancefloor, and through collaboration with artists and researchers on interdisciplinary and frequently politically involved projects.

Lau Lukkarila (they/them) is a choreographer and performer based in Vienna, born by the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. They are dedicated to exploring the nuances of engaged awkwardness, transcending discomfort and embracing emphatic and visceral terrains of interaction. From 2008 to 2013 Lukkarila studied in the University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki and in the Royal Higher College of Performing Arts in Madrid. Recent works include “Never Underestimate the Calmness in My Voice on My Face” (2024) with Zeynab Kirikou Gueye and “Lapse and the Scarlet Sun” (2023) with Luca Bonamore. Lukkarila’s work has been shown at ImPulsTanz Festival (AU), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (AU), imagetanz (AU), XS-Festival (FI), Smoqua (CR) and supported by brut Wien, Tanzquartier Wien, Kone Foundation and the EU Creative Crossroads - Life Long Burning Creative Europe program. As „Schoßhund“ they have published three internet EP’s: Super Like (2019), HUFKLANG (2020) and HEAVYCRUSH (2022). www.laulukkarila.com / @same.ideas.okay

Marika Peura (she/her) is a freelance choreographer, dancer and performer based in Helsinki. She works multidisciplinary in the fields of dance and contemporary performing arts. She is interested in the emotional, poetic and political nature that unfolds from the experientiality of the body, and strives for choreography where sensitivity, darkness and humor are in an intimate and uncanny relation. Her ongoing practice observes dancing as a sensual way of being part of the world, she approaches this research from the intersection of club/rave dance & culture and contemporary choreography & stage. Peura’s dance background is in street & club dance culture; freestyle hip hop, house and waacking dances. This is reflected in her artistic practice and in the relation to bodily movement. Peura graduated from the Choreography MA program at Theatre Academy of the Uniarts Helsinki in 2020, and studied contemporary dance BA during 2014-2017 at Uniarts Helsinki and at HZT's Dance, Context, Choreography programs. Peura’s recent works as a choreographer include collaborations down below things shudder (2023), and then they left (2021), Guess What? Guess what! (2022 & 2021), Shall we have a drink before I start to cry (2020), Philia (2019) and solo work Sirkka Pukoilija (2017). She has worked as a dancer in works by Maija Hirvanen (fin), Joona Halonen(fin), Petri Kekoni (fin), Janina Rajakangas (fin), Reija Wäre (fin), Samir Akika (alg/fra), Branch Nebula (aus) and Wang / Ramirez (ger/fra).

Ju Aichinger (they/them) is an artist living in Vienna. Ju works in the fields of ceramics, installation, video, graphic design and painting. Ju is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Contextual Painting Department, working with clay and creating familiar and abstract objects that integrate visual references from high-end fashion, pop and queer culture as well as everyday life. Ju has made the visuals for several of Lukkarila’s works, such as “kneading to the 3rd millennia” (2021) / brut Wien and “Lapse and the Scarlet Sun” (2023) with Luca Bonamore / ImPulsTanz Festival. In 2022 Ju did the stage and costume design for “hearing the wild heart” by Alex Franz Zehetbauer. Ju's work has recently been presented in various exhibitions, including graze at Galerie Dessous and Soft Machine at phileas - A Fund for Contemporary Art.

Val Holfeld (they/them, no pronouns) is a curator*, costume- & set designer* and works as a art educator* in vienna. They graduated in art education and currently studies contextual painting at the academy of fine arts in vienna. In their curatorial work, they use humor and playful imagery in reference to pop- and queer culture to question binary structures. In 2023 Val founded the Off Space Kollektiv Zirkusgasse together with 5 artists. The collective showcases emerging FLINTA* artists and views the curatorial practice as a stage in which care work and theatrical happening meet in a new way. They worked as a production manager at Schauspielhaus Wien in cooperation with Wien Modern (2023), Bregenz Festival (2020- 2022) and has collaborated with set-& costume designers in various plays mainly in german speaking theatres. Recently a collaboration in costume design with Christof Hetzer was seen at Nikikai Opera Foundation in Tokyo 2023.

Claire Lefèvre (she/her) is a choreographer, writer with insomnia and reality TV enthusiast who lives in Vienna. She likes to think of herself as a host, welcoming collaborators and spectators into kitsch landscapes where politics and poetry are intertwined. In 2019-2022 she explored the concept of 'radical softness' as a choreographic strategy, understanding hypersensitivity as a method, theme and portal for imagining (the) work. She is currently exploring the archetype and working methods of a performance doula, a role designed to de-visibilise care work in the context of performance making. In 2017 Claire was awarded the BKA Start Scholarship for Music and Performing Arts and in 2019 she was awarded the Tanzquartier Training Scholarship. Between 2020-2021 Claire was one of three artists in residence at K3/Kampnagel in Hamburg (DE). Her work has been shown at March Hare Festival (IS), Dance Days Chania (GR), TanzHafen (AT), Imagetanz (AT), Tanzhochdrei (DE), Fluctoplasma (DE) and YUP (DE) and supported by Life Long Burning, Im_Flieger, Tanzzentrale Nürnberg, Wien Kultur, WUK, brut Wien, Huggy Bears, NadaLokal and Tanzfabrik.

Laura Hähnel (she/they) is a Berlin-based producer, combining their academic background in cultural and media education from Hochschule Merseburg with their commitment to social engagement and event organisation. They initially embarked on their career with diverse projects, including initiatives such as Hilfebus Leipzig and curating events in local clubs in Leipzig and Dresden. After gaining valuable experience as a production assistant at CTM Festival, they took on leading production roles for festival venues such as Berghain. Currently, their focus lies on overseeing art, festival, and tour productions, collaborating with artists like Caroline Polachek and Eartheater, and contributing to esteemed festivals like WHOLE, melt, and Performing Arts Festival Berlin.