The site-specific performance will be presented in the main exhibition hall of the Belvedere 21 on June 20 and 21, 2025. Admission is free. 

With JANUS, artist and researcher Katrin Hornek and choreographer and performer Karin Pauer explore the complexities of the Atomic Age, tracing its cultural and political legacies alongside its contemporary dynamics. 

The performance was developed specifically for the Belvedere 21—a building of historical significance initially conceived as the Austrian Pavilion for Expo 1958 in Brussels. A key theme of this first post–World War II World’s Fair was the “peaceful use of nuclear power,” manifested not only in the exhibits of numerous national pavilions but also in the radical proposal to power the fair itself with an on-site nuclear reactor. Its cooling water was intended to irrigate the gardens of the so-called colonial section. 

JANUS juxtaposes the era’s exuberant optimism toward nuclear energy with the discovery of radionuclides in Vienna—remnants of atmospheric atomic bomb tests conducted during the same period. Belvedere 21 thus transforms into a living narrator, where polyphonic, embodied knowledge intersects with geological traces and geopolitical nuclear narratives. 

In this performance, celebratory, energetic, resistant, dissolving, and reassembling bodies intertwine in a condensed, multi-sensory exploration of what it means to live in the nuclear Anthropocene. Hornek and Pauer create an immersive, physically experiential space for collective reflection on the traces of atomic science in bodies, plants, soils, and waterways. Through movement, sound, and collected voices, they negotiate the unprecedented alliance between technology, the military, and science—from the first atomic tests to the nuclear industry’s renaissance unfolding today. 

Curator: Christiane Erharter