We are thrilled to once again be part of the Handle with Care series at the imagetanz Festival by brut with our Huggy Bears! Over two weekends, we invite those interested to join us at Bears in the Park for the first public Work-in-Progress Sharing of our Bears. In 20-minute presentations, the artists will give insight into their fresh creative processes, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. In the spirit of Handle with Care, this format offers a wonderful opportunity for emerging artists to gather feedback and experience working with an audience during the development phase of their work.
Handle with Care Part I: March 29 + 30 2025, 16:00 – 18:00
With François-Eloi Lavignac “Fifth Position”+
and Flora Renhardt & Maria Melotti “sk8er grrrl”
Handle with Care Part II: April 5 + 6 2025, 16:00 – 18:00
With Simone Lorenzo Benini & Miriam Budzáková “The Sandpit”
and Laureen Drexler & Giorgia Scisciola “PIERRE”
General Info
Location: Bears in the Park, Eyzinggasse 12/2, 1110 Vienna
Admission: Pay-as-you-can. Registration through brut Website.
More information about HwC and the imagetanz festival you can find on the brut website.
Fifth Position
Discipline, rigour, control, craving and vulnerability: François-Eloi Lavignac’s solo performance Fifth Position tackles classical ballet, institutional power and the dynamics of sexuality. Based on personal experiences and using movement and language, the French dancer/choreographer draws parallels between the structures within the ballet industry and the pressure society places on matters regarding body and identity
sk8ter girl
Skateboarding, dancing, balancing, bouncing, breaking clichés, trying movements: sk8er grrrl identifies as a tribute to FLINTA* in the skating scene. Exhibiting some real punk attitude and a lot of DIY, Flora Renhardt and Maria Melotti will turn the Bears in the Park Art Place into a skatepark. They will be assembling, screwing, constructing and deconstructing. On the trail of the feminist Riot Grrrls movement, the two artists find their freedom in skating, creating a space for aggression and friction as well as for softness.
The Sandpit
Sand is a material able to create and at the same time erase many shapes. Manipulation turns sand into a substance out of which an endless number of stories and images can be made. In a way, sand preserves memories. It hides and reveals, leaves only details visible and invites us to imagine what may lie beneath them. In The Sandpit, Simone Lorenzo Benini and Miriam Budzáková examine this material as a metaphor for the body – a wreath for endless possibilities of exploring the ambiguity of our memories, which are often unclear and blend with fantasies, fears, desires and other forces.
PIERRE
In PIERRE (which is French for ‘stone’), Laureen Drexler and Giorgia Scisciola explore the balance between structure and freedom as they delve into the complex dynamics of oppression and self-liberation. In this world that imposes rigid social expectations, we tend to forget how to live in harmony with our inner voice. PIERRE is about relearning life and reconnecting with intuition and emotion, about how the act of listening to oneself can become the key to liberation and about vulnerability being a source of power rather than weakness.
On our website you can also find out more about the Huggy Bear artists.
Credit image: imagetanz 2025 Artwork – Design: @fondazione.biz; Artwork: @maryaudreyramirez, Devil (Candy Candy Candy), 2022, Courtesy the artist and @petramartinetz, Cologne