Elevate Festival

It’s all a question of trust

Opening performance "Bounce"

(Bild: Johanna Lamprecht)

Wednesday evening saw the opening of the Elevate Festival in Graz, which this year focuses on the crisis of trust under the motto "Trust Issues". The duo Navaridas/Deutinger delivered a first festival highlight with their opening performance "Bounce".

Do you trust politics? Do you trust your boss? Do you trust me? These are big questions that presenter Lori Baldwin poses in a poetic tirade at the opening of this year's Elevate Festival at the Orpheum in Graz. Of course, these are not new questions; for years there has been a crisis of trust (in addition to or because of all the other crises) - and it is precisely this that this year's Elevate aims to address with the motto "Trust Issues". 

So it was only fitting that festival director Bernhard Steirer also addressed the current crisis of trust between the local cultural scene and politics at the opening: For a long time, organizers could have relied on a trusting relationship with funding bodies. "But this relationship has soured, the tone has changed and that's a shame. I appeal for a return to good manners," he says, alluding to the recent budget cuts and the hasty reshuffle of the cultural board of trustees. It was criticism that the political leaders had perhaps expected - and did not want to hear: Karlheinz Kornhäusl, State Councillor for Culture, was in any case "unable to attend".

Skipping rope to set the pace
Fortunately, the Graz duo Deutinger/Navaridas, who had developed their own concert performance for the opening with "Bounce", which picked up on many linguistic images of the current crisis of confidence, were not prevented from attending: the ground on which the performers (Bruna Diniz, Matteo Haitzmann, Marta Navaridas) move in "Bounce" is hypersensitive. Every small step triggers an acoustic shockwave that can be picked up by the musicians (Eduardo Raon and Manuel Riegler). The question is: can you find a common rhythm, can you enter into a shared resonance space, or do you stumble along side by side? 

In "Bounce", skipping ropes set the pace for a powerful, raw exploration of togetherness. The performers bounce to the point of ecstasy and far beyond. Because only after complete exhaustion, it seems, do you have the strength for poetic innovation. Alex Deutinger and Marta Navaridas not only deliver a first festival highlight, but also a perfect translation of what Elevate stands for: ecstasy in the disco and innovation in discourse.