YOU CAN BE MY DOUBLE IF I CAN BE YOURS, 2012

YOU CAN BE MY DOUBLE IF I CAN BE YOURS is a interdisciplinary project where videos, performances and food culture mix up.

The evening started with a two-hour performance screening program. Both performance and video were selected according to the criteria of the interfaces between performance, theater, video and film. The screening had already taken place in a similar form in November 2011 in brut at the Konzerthaus Vienna.

In this project the program was extended by a dinner. The dinner took place on a 30-meters long table, attended by 100 people, most of which were determined by lottery. Along the entire length ran a tablecloth which was embroidered by Michaela Schweighofer with expressions that the participating artists made about their artistic work and/or recited it. Furthermore, the service staff was equipped with specially made aprons.

Für die Küche zeichneten William Knaack und Team verantwortlich. Als Vorspeise wurde ein "Rucolasalat mit karamelisierten Birnenspalten, Walnüssen & Gorgonzola" serviert, gefolgt von der Hauptspeise "Salbeiknödel mit Champignons an Zitronenbutter". Dazu gab es verschiedene Rot- und Weißweine sowie Fruchtsäfte des Weinguts Johann Dirnwöber.

William Knaack and the team were responsible for the kitchen. As a starter, a "Rocket salad with caramelized pear slices, walnuts & gorgonzola" was served, followed by the main course "Sage dumplings with mushrooms and lemon butter". In addition there were different red and white wines served as well as fruit juices of the winery Johann Dirnwöber.

As a third course I designed a huge cake with a mandarin and a raspberry cream filling that measured half a square meter and was served together with Julischka Stengele within our cake fairy tale appearance. The pie and cake cart was part of the performance Happy Birthday, Ms. Monroe by Bernadette Anzengruber, which referred to a filming of the 45th birthday of John F. Kennedy, as Marilyn Monroe in the wake of the arrival of an oversized cake for the President serenaded and breathed her legendary "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" into the microphone. By disturbing the "transmission" of the historical "video material", namely by playing GLoria Gaynor's "I will survive" instead. Cutting the screen from behind while the video image freezes, Bernadette Anzengruber not only appropriates to the cake as her own birthday present but ultimately Monroe's life story. In the cake was a magic ball, in which was a new garment hidden which was brought out of the cake by a kind of penetrative act. The performance of Bernadette Anzengruber was the last part of the performance screening program, just as the cake fairy tale started the last part of the menu.

In a fulminating three-quarters of an hour's performance and under the drum roll of the band TALBOT, who musically accompanied the dinner, we, Julischka Stengele and myself, presented the huge cake. After a tour we served the "pie pieces" in a coquettish manner. Even mouths that demanded the cake too loud were directly stuffed.

Credits (Dinner)

Organisation: William Knaack, Veronika Merklein, Michaela Schweighofer Kitchen: Johanna Baader, Katharina Herrmann, William Knaack, Christopher Steinweber Cake fairies: Veronika Merklein, Julischka Stengele (Make Up/costume: Bernadette Anzengruber, Veronika Merklein, Andreas Riegler) Table-/bar service: Veronika Burger, Jennifer Enzmann, Konstantin Haas, Andi Notz, Basil Schu, Mario Strk Table cloth/Aprons (Design/embroidery): Michaela Schweighofer Bar design: Ulrich A. Reiterer, Michaela Schweighofer Music: TALBOT (Katharina Ernst, Boris Valentinitsch, Maximilian Oelz)

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Screening/Performances

Bernadette Anzengruber, Johannes Bode, Jessyka R. Hauser, Marie Klein & Rosi Rehformen, Maria Meinhild, Julia Novacek, Teresa Novotny, Marlies Pöschl, Michaela Schweighofer, Michael Simku