Films by Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek
November 4, 2026
Olga Neuwirth is one of the most important composers working today – however, as a filmmaker and video artist, she is almost unknown. Since her studies in San Francisco, she has worked intensely with the moving image and the history of animation; in her creative work, sound and picture are inextricably linked. Her years of collaboration with Elfriede Jelinek play a central role here: a whole group of works, from ensemble pieces to works for stage and films, are the result of a close dialogue with the Nobel Prize recipient and her texts. Das Fallen. Die Falle is based on a text by the author, spoken by Sophie Rois and Jelinek herself. Die Schöpfung makes recourse to the Old Testament to deal with the nature of time-based art and history, using animation as well as text and visual collage: “Meters of time stagger past you and vanish (...)” We present these two Jelinek-Neuwirth collaborations with the video work Durch Luft und Meer, which is in dialogue with Neuwirth's new installation produced for Wien Modern and to see and hear from September 31 to November 4 in the Musikverein's Metallenen Saal. (Michael Loebenstein / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In collaboration with Musikverein and Wien Modern
Olga Neuwirth is one of the most important composers working today – however, as a filmmaker and video artist, she is almost unknown. Since her studies in San Francisco, she has worked intensely with the moving image and the history of animation; in her creative work, sound and picture are inextricably linked. Her years of collaboration with Elfriede Jelinek play a central role here: a whole group of works, from ensemble pieces to works for stage and films, are the result of a close dialogue with the Nobel Prize recipient and her texts. Das Fallen. Die Falle is based on a text by the author, spoken by Sophie Rois and Jelinek herself. Die Schöpfung makes recourse to the Old Testament to deal with the nature of time-based art and history, using animation as well as text and visual collage: “Meters of time stagger past you and vanish (...)” We present these two Jelinek-Neuwirth collaborations with the video work Durch Luft und Meer, which is in dialogue with Neuwirth's new installation produced for Wien Modern and to see and hear from September 31 to November 4 in the Musikverein's Metallenen Saal. (Michael Loebenstein / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In collaboration with Musikverein and Wien Modern