Tagtool Convention 2019 - Day 1

Photos from the inaugural day of the Tagtool Convention 2019 at Kunstwerkstatt Tulln: It all kicked off on Friday with a workshop for the next generation of creatives. It was a riot, and the kids rocked the 40 meter wide immersive projection at the venue!

In the evening, OMAi’s founders, brothers Markus and Josef Dorninger and Matthias Fritz, welcomed the audience with a short introductory talk. This was followed by a surreal fairy-tale presented by Tetete, featuring improvised narration by Christian Reiner and electronic sounds by Philip Leitner.

The second act was expertly delivered by Dieter Puntigam, Bea von Schrader and Marcus Saravia, all from Austria. Their performance was inspired by the Fridays for Future movement, and featured Dieter’s incredibly fluid projection painting using an old-school DIY Tagtool console, and Bea’s urgent and sublime dancing. Marcus added an additional layer to the performance by incorporating long-exposure light graffiti techniques.

Next up was US-born Berlin resident Ilan Katin, who took things onto the meta plane with a witty visual monologue. The audience clearly appreciated his stories that meandered from the quirks of inter-personal communication all the way to a spoof of famous works of art history.

The following performer, Sol Carta, came all the way from Buenos Aires. While she usually works together with live musicians in an ensemble called Lila, she performed solo this time around, with the music prerecorded. Even so, her performance was a skillful improvised visual narration full of magic moments!

Friday’s sessions were concluded by Yaguar, who has become a regular at Tagtool conventions with his trademark digital shaman style. The audience witnessed him populate the space with weird and wonderful creatures inspired by indigenous art of his home country Colombia.