GABRIELLE KRUGER

When wandering willows weep water

Developed during the residency in Bad Gastein for sommer.frische.kunst, this Performance Painting forms part of my ongoing project; ‘The Garden of Metamorphoun’. Local dancers embody my ungrounded paintings and through movement and dance, make them come alive.

‘When wandering willows weep water’ is inspired by the regions’ mythologies and ritual practices surrounding Alpine water and plants. Drawing on the local oral narratives and beliefs about the environment’s thermal springs as curative and the subsequent historic spa culture, I was interested in the region’s vernacular mythologies and ritual practices surrounding the “magical” water. From these sources I imagined three performative personae, each derived from folklore motifs and pre-Christian ritual traditions that have either persisted or vanished.

Three characters emerge: the Waternymph (Wasserfrau Nixie), a shape‑shifting river spirit embodying reciprocity and danger; the Alpine Bride, invoking rites of purification through the cleansing of her edelweiss veil in the river; and the Moss Man (Moosmännchen), a phytomorphic forest guardian tied to moss baths, healing, and warnings against harming the environment.

@sommer.frische.kunst

Performers:
Nicky Stromminger
Theresa Schober
Jana Kappacher​

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Artworks, direction and choreography:

Gabrielle Kruger

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Special thanks:

Galerie EIGEN + ART

Andrea von Goetz

Straubinger Hotel & Badeschloss

Bad Gastein Tourism

Dr. Silvie Aigner

Hanna Papendieck

Casimir Camillo

Pajo.One Communication

Silvo Gastrein

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Video:

Gabrielle Kruger​