Travel Tip: Dance in Austria
Cie. Ismael Ivo / Johann Kresnik : Francis Bacon

A naked sphinx, with her legs in a white sack and a butcher’s knife for crutches. A body hanging from the ceiling like a carcass. And Ismael Ivo convulsing, gasping for breath. Johann Kresnik, who is originally from Carinthia, emigrated to Germany. His choreographic theatre operates with powerful images. After sixteen years, his piece Francis Bacon (set and costume design: Penelope Wehrli) returns to Vienna, with African-Brazilian dance star Ismael Ivo dancing the main part.

20 years after Bacon’s death, the famous artist’s paintings have become iconic, 21 of which have been translated into choreographies, confronted with the intensive noise music of Paolo Chagas. One of them is the Brit’s zombie-like caricature of Velazquez’ picture of Pope Innocent X. Kresnik goes one step further, distilling a violent, forceful portrayal of the state of the world from Bacon’s inner feelings – a desolate chasm in which a man of pain plays his ambivalent game with relish.