The choreographic assemblage r i v e r h o o d, #Wienfluss combines a choreographic walk along the riverside as well as a performance & installation, a reading & concert. Each of these parts can also be activated and experienced independently.

We turn to the Wienfluss and the geological conditions of the 15th district and follow the extended riverbed and streams through time. By turning to one river, we connect with all the other rivers. The rivers and their waters are veins: in our bodies, in the landscape. They are vulnerable, endangered habitats. The Wienfluss was flooded some months ago, in autumn 2024. We are also flooded. Swept away into a flowing oblivion. How we were. How we will be. How we could be. We invite bringing the attention on the everydayness of our senses and dances.

The choreographic walk along the shore invites sensing and connect with being part of the river. It is facilitated and narrated by Sabina Holzer, Oisín Ó Manacháin|Oisín Monaghan, Agnes Schneidewind, Christina Gruber and dedicated to the Vienna River and its geological, urban watershed.

Wienfluss, April 2025. Photo: Sabina Holzer.

We are experimenting & practicing encountering the Vienna River as another entity and being. We invite sharing this experience.

Sabina Holzer, Agnes Schneidewind, Christina Gruber, Oisín Ó Manacháin|Oisín Monaghan & the Lady of the River. Wienfluss, April 2025. Photo: Sabina Holzer.

… Listening to the river. We like to imagine us as counter currencies—we are the parts
of the wave, which is streaming against the overall direction of the flow and whirl up
different aspects of the river. We invite us all to follow these currents. But also to open
our senses and follow maybe our own path—but please try to stay connected to us as
the group so that we share a certain rhythm together. … (Script for the walk)

Photo: Jack Hauser

… Always relating to our human water bodies, the walk brings the attention to our correlation of water, rivers and riverbeds with sensorial scores to experience our interconnectedness. We time-travel with the river in the deep geological past, weaving it with our future hopes & desires.…(Script for the walk)

Photo: Jack Hauser

… We follow the waves in our bodies with our attention, the waves moving all the way through our bodies. We may feel it as a sway, subtle waves, or bigger waves. We follow them through our torso, passing through shoulders and arms, streaming waving into each finger. We open our palms towards each other. The palms resonate with our inner waves and the waves outside our skin. … (Script for the walk)

seeing is water skin
counting is cutting (Christian Loidl)

Photos: Jack Hauser

… Rocks are a fundamental part of river habitats, providing shelter, spawning grounds, and influencing water flow, we ask to impart a dedication/intention/thought with a rock and place it back into the river as an offering. …

… Around ten million years ago, today’s Vienna Basin lay on the banks of a huge body of water. At that time, the Alps had already been thrown up by Africa and the arm of the primeval Thetys Sea separated from the mountain ridge gradually shrank. What remained in the depression between the Alps and the Carpathians was a huge, initially still salty lake: the so-called Pannonian Lake or Lake Pannon existed until at least 5 000 000 years ago and was at times the largest lake in Europe.… (Script for the walk)

Sabina Holzer (conception)
Wienfluss (script)
Alix Eynaudi, Sabina Holzer, Oisín Ó Manacháin|Oisín Monaghan, Agnes Schneidewind (choreography, performance, walks)
Jack Hauser (expanded cinematographer)
Christina Gruber (hydrological counselling, walks)
Litó Walkey (writing companion & reading)
Boris Hauf (composition & sound)
mollusca productions (production management)


With heartfelt thanks to: Sabine Grupe, who so generously made her knowledge and expertise available, Martin Wieser for his support during the rehearsals and all the participants in the Artist in Residencies: Tom Klien, Kilian Jörg, Cornelia Scheuer and workshop participants. Herbert Justnik for the year long inspiring and supportive dialogues.

Conceived & organized by Sabina Holzer – cattravelsnotalone
Cooperation: Kunstraum eindorf and Volkskundemuseum Wien. 

Funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and the Cultural Commission of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus.

A project by cattravelsnotalone.

Sabina Holzer has been designing and facilitating workshops & artistic research settings on the human body, water and urban landscapes since 2021. Under the name Liquid Journey she has visited with her practice the Volkskundemuseum, Tanzquartier, dieAngewandte and ImPulsTanz in Vienna. In 2021, she received a working grant from the City of Vienna for her artistic research, for Fluvial, which gave her the possibility to meet other artists and scientists walking and exploring the river sites and underground waters of Vienna.