(Open Lab and Exhibition)
Curation and Open Lab by Performatorium
WHEN:
Open Lab: 21.-22.3.2026
Exhibition: 23.3.-10.4.2026
Opening hours:
21.3., 13-17h
22.3., 11-15h
26.3., 14-16h
10.4., 16-19h
… and on demand olivia.jaques@mzbaltazarslaboratory.org
WHERE:
Mz* Baltazar’s Lab, Jägerstraße 52-54, 1200 Vienna, Austria
Salina Abaza: “Beautiful Dzadza – Queering the Concept of Elopement”
2022/2026
The story of beautiful Dzadza has been hidden away in a time capsule waiting to be activated in other times and places such as Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory. The time capsule takes the form of an old box. It contains different elements as “evidence” and “documents” of an elopement that took place in an undefined time in the Caucasus region between Dzadza and her lover, a woman. Among the documents are letters written in Abkhazian and Circassian languages, that were exchanged between the two, providing us today with backdrop information about the elopement and the nature of this relationship. The box also includes a song from Circassian folklore which is named after beautiful Dzadza and tells the story of her elopement.
The time capsule shows the patriarchal tradition of eloping through a queer lens, drawing questions on the nature of what is real and historically true, considering the factual erasure of queer history across the world.
About the Open Lab:
During the open lab, which navigates between curation, mediation, and participatory performance, Performatorium (Olivia Jaques/Marlies Surtmann) translates the work of Salina Abaza into the time and space of Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory. The public is welcome to join this live process. No prior knowledge is required to attend the open lab. You are welcome to simply be present as an observer or to actively participate.
About Performatorium:
Performatorium (founded in 2017) is a Vienna-based artist* duo (Olivia Jaques/Marlies Surtmann) and a laboratory for practice-oriented research with and through artistic means. Performatorium is currently developing artistic-performative forms of spatial and temporal knowledge transfer in socially engaged performance art and is exploring the question of embodied practices as forms of transmission.
https://performatorium.wordpress.com/
https://mastodon.social/@performatorium
