Madame Nielsen
The Silver Dollar Duke Royal Flush Gala (2023)
Performance
Madame Nielsen, The Silver Dollar Duke Royal Flush Gala (2023), performance, photo: steirischer herbst / Wolf Silveri
Madame Nielsen, The Silver Dollar Duke Royal Flush Gala (2023), performance, photo: steirischer herbst / Wolf Silveri
In a newly expanded and reworked musical performance, artist, author, and singer Madame Nielsen intervenes into the scenic and sonic life and death of David Bowie. On a journey through nine songs, each of Bowieʼs androgynous alter egos is transformed into a new fragile, “Madamed” being that exists beyond gender identification and species, from homo sacer through android to posthuman insect. Each song is destroyed and recreated in an entirely new, frail, hard-heartbeating, and dance-flooring version—a show between homage and homicide.
Madame Nielsen is an artist, author, singer, and posthuman being. She creates stage productions and solo performances shown internationally, her novels have been translated into nine languages, and she is also part of the band The Nielsen Sisters. In the 2000s, Madame Nielsen was the nameless head of Das Beckwerk, known for its interventions into the states of emergency in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Egypt. In 2014, she intervened as Miss World in Ukraine. For her work, Madame Nielsen has received several national and international prizes. She lives in Europe.
Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ’23 on the basis of The Silver Dollar Duke Show, commissioned and produced by Bergen International Literary Festival
With the kind support of the Danish Arts Foundation
29.9., 30.9., 19:00
Orpheum
Orpheumgasse 8
8020 Graz ♿
18/14 euros
Duration: ca. 60 min.
Performance, voice, and guitar: Madame Nielsen alias The Silver Dollar Duke
Piano, synthesizer, and electronics: Simon Sailor Toldam
Concept: Madame Nielsen / The Nielsen Movement
Music: David Bowie transformed by Madame Nielsen and Simon Toldam
Text: David Bowie transcribed by Madame Nielsen
Light design: Morten Kolbak
Costumes and stage concept: Madame Nielsen
Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ’23 on the basis of The Silver Dollar Duke Show, commissioned and produced by Bergen International Literary Festival
With the kind support of the Danish Arts Foundation