Voyage Into Infinity - Narcissister - Vienna Festival 2026

US performance star Narcissister’s latest work is centred around an installation as she brings an oversized chain reaction machine made of recycled everyday objects to the stage. Three masked performers are driving the action. A falling discus thrower (pin-up boy of Nazi propaganda), a marble run that goes up in flames, vaginal fireworks are elements of a choreographed game about cause and effect. In contrast to the inspirational film The Way Things Go (1987) by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, which covered up the male interference (i.e., editing) in such a game, Narcissister is foregrounding the female, partly nude performers as driving forces. Equipped with emblematic, doll-like Narcissister masks, they become projection spaces and provide an eerie commentary on entrenched beauty ideals and the objectification of women. Voyage Into Infinity is humour, critique and visual spectacle rolled into one: raw energy and punk spirit.

Recommended for ages 16+

The performance contains nudity.

Duration: approx. 60 min

program

Voyage into Infinity

Narcissister

Place

The Museumsquartier (MQ) is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner (Ortner & Ortner Baukunst). The renovation of the former court stables began in April 1998. Three years later, the Museumsquartier opened in two stages (June and September 2001). The total cost of the construction was 150 Million Euro (two billion Schilling).

The MQ is home to a range of installations from large art museums like the Leopold Museum and the MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna) to contemporary exhibition spaces like the Kunsthalle Wien and festivals like the Wiener Festwochen, an annual summer event that is headquartered in the MuseumsQuartier Wien.

Additional highlights include the Tanzquartier, an international, state-of-the-art centre for dance, the Architekturzentrum Wien, production studios for new media, artist studios for artists-in-residence, outstanding art and cultural facilities designed for children, and a variety of other events and festivals such as the renowned Viennale film festival, the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, and many others. The Museumsquartier also hosts quartier21, which features a number of alternative art groups.