HupaPERFORMANCE &
THEATER

No Talent Show ignores the rules that in this world, there is only space for the best and most successful. It is an inclusive space for creative freedom, dedicated to awkward moments, failures, and daring attempts. It is a performative event that offers us the opportunity for stage self-exploration without expectations or judgments, using the belief that we are not good enough as a source of creative energy.
No Talent Show welcomes everyone who desires a stage experience and experienced performers to explore entirely new performative interspaces.

Psychomagical theater is a space of transformative experience, where the performer brings himself and the audience into a shared encounter. Chilean artist Alejandro Jodorowsky developed psychomagic as a therapeutic tool, and at Podhod we are experimenting with it through original performative acts. The series “Cracks in the Mirror” is an open platform dedicated to exploring symbols, approaches, and presentations; it is a space for safe risk-taking, where a psychomagical act causes cracks in the reflections of the unconscious. It is an insight into the power of theatrical intentions.

The moon has illuminated my emptiness, and I have awakened from a millennium-long slumber. Every time I shed a mask and look into the mirror, I scream in horror. It approached me and stripped away my skin, soaked with intimate blood. As it washed in the moon’s reflection, I slipped out of my armor and built a path to freedom from it. I bid farewell to everything that was never born within me. I beheaded the patriarch who has sat at the head of the family table for generations, and I disassembled my mother’s accommodating nature beyond recognition. The moon recognized all the women who bled before me within my body and painted itself red. When we revive our intimate strength, a new era will emerge from it. A cyclical performance, 13. Luna, is dedicated to women who are freeing themselves from the shackles of patriarchy and their own roles within it, and to men who support them in this. The performance explores the powers and challenges brought by psychomagical theatrical methods.
Performed at the Kajuh House as part of the 20th anniversary of the Artistic District Celje / U4.

A mystical sensory walk through the night garden of the thirteenth moon. Inula, Rafflesia, Durian, and other night dames following the silver reflections from the sky reveal dreams from the past, stories of love, and the myth of the goddess’s dismemberment. Beneath the masks of lunar phases, ancient secrets unfold, buried deep in cellular memory.
The cyclical performance, 13. Luna, is dedicated to women who are freeing themselves from the shackles of patriarchy and their own roles within it, and to men who support them in this. The performance explores the powers and challenges brought by psychomagical theatrical methods. Performed at the Passage as part of the Kavč Festival 2024.

Other Island is a 72-hour artistic event that takes place over a duration of time in 40 empty apartments within a building in the center of Vienna. In each apartment, performances, exhibitions, extravagant dinners, concerts, and more are held; a total of 120 artists participate, including three performers of Hupa Brajdič collective and hundreds of visitors who freely walk between the apartments and along the hallways. The event was inspired by the futuristic novel by Austrian writer and painter Alfred Kubin, and Other Side was conceived by Austrian director and painter Gerhard Fresacher.

“Something smolders beneath the surface, something lives beneath the surface!”

The artistic collective Hupa Brajdič delves into the underground passageway of Ajdovščina, creating a space where hope resides through a collective act of retreat. Thirteen performers stubbornly persist and push their way through the wall with their heads. It is known that above and below do not exist separately, and if given a choice, we prefer to be below.
In one of the abandoned display windows of the once lively passageway, it seems that every hope is futile. But hope cannot be so easily buried, even if it resides a few meters underground. Among the forgotten, homeless, and marginal, Hupa Brajdič dresses in cardboard boxes and, during a half-hour performance, reveals where, why, and how hope exists.

No stage. Few limitations.

A series of improvised psychedelic performance with a specific topic and no stage. Creative experiment for the artists and the audience, inspired by the theater approaches of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The Witch Blues is an interactive children’s theater that combines original stories and songs, storytelling, puppets, innovative scenography, and colorful costumes. In our efforts to provide the best educational approach, we incorporate several developmental goals into our creations: creativity, cultural education, broadening horizons, enriching perceptions of the world, and positive social interactions. We also conduct artistic workshops.

Performances:
– Magical Parade (2017)
– Magical Spells (2019)
– The Magic Book (2021)
-How the Witch Fended Off the Dragon Hunters (2022)
-Pledge to the River (2023)
– Dragon River (2024)

The voyage of the self.

A multimedia performance, an interactive exhibition, a psychological game, a book in the making and an experimental entertainment. Based on a story of the old cruise ship that voyages in the ocean of timelessness. Individual passengers represent personalized human aspects: Mr. Wrong, diva Sick Mind, Mr. Laughter, Lady Daydreaming, Lady Metamorphosis and others. Hupa invites you to find out which one of them is You. Having doubts, Mr. Question?

“Shout me your love!”

A colorful interpretation of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s Three Sisters performed by 80 artists from Austria, Slovenia and Ukraine.

An art spectacle led by an Austrian artist Gerhard Fresacher in the factory halls of Eurogold Indistries Ltd. in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Colourful interpretation of Three sisters by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, performed by 80 artists from Austria, Slovenia and Ukraine: Hupa Brajdič performers, Austrian visual collective 7 sons of Dzinkiskan, military orchestra from Zhytomyr, Ukranian rock band Zerno, actors from Zhytomyr national theater etc.

One heartbeat in a collective dream.

A 24-hour performance, a mixture of an invasive theater, exhibition of Gerhard Fresacher and visual spectacle that took place in gallery Dark City-Raum 8 in Klagenfurt. 14 Performers of Hupa Brajdič occupied shopping windows and all other places in the gallery and invited the audience to join them for one day of their life. Project was based on memories of “No Disco Behind”, led by Gerhard Fresacher (Zhytomyr/Ukraine 2018).

Inspired by the exhibition Iva Tratnik: Above Kun, below Xun: anatomical transbestiary

Performative intervention at the exhibition IAva Tratnik in the Škuc Gallery. The images from her paintings gained life and stepped into the experience of living out there.

“Creatures of the night.
They are born to live only one night. Whoever sees them can be considered lucky.”

Artistic tour of Villa for Forest in Klagenfurt, March 2019

co-production

I just want to be liked.

Found in translation is a dance project that explores the meanings that are lost, overlooked, found or added in our subjective interpretations of the information we receive in everyday communication. Through a movement method which allows free association of the body Kristina and Ferndando are searching for those elements in our communication that remain hidden. They are trying to create a place where personal and interpersonal finally meet.

The image claims it’s own emancipation now.

Physical theater performance about the Image. It is a birth, a hyperproduction and an exploitation. The performance talks about the Moon as one of the most used images of all time.

Trapped in a possible premonition.

Theatrical-movement satire about contemporary conflict, about being trapped in a premonition of the possible and the weight of the unspeakable. Gerhard lies between dreams and reality, between stand-up art and writing cheap ads, Gerhard is a troubled extreme, a man with a vivid imagination, a touch of talent and a fear of performing.