Sophrosyne—The Moment Before the Smile

In their reading performance, the artist duo gecko art—Evelyn Blumenau and Walter Kreuz—explore the Intelligenz der Ruhe [Intelligence of Calm]. Through staged texts, sound recordings, and slow-motion actions, they stretch the duration of a single second. Artistic stick masks and slow-motion sequences enhance the experimental reading passages.

Five people are portrayed leaving their homes one morning. But the fascination of the moment makes them hesitate and even prevents them from greeting passersby with their usual kindness. Instead, they feel a burning desire to give free rein to their most intimate perceptions and are determined to search, right in the heart of the city, for places that evoke the shores of tranquil waters. Their stated goal is to become rocks in the surf.

On this day, they don’t want their train of thought to fall apart again. Surrounded by “Gewitterwolken der Digitalität” [storm clouds of digitality] (Alexander Kluge) and disjointed fragments of information—with keywords that sting and headlines that strike—these five people set out on a quest. Seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling, they surrender themselves completely to the magnetism of the world around them, until they come across a word scratched into the asphalt: Sophrosyne.

Sophrosyne – und es gibt sie doch, die Intelligenz der Ruhe [Sophrosyne—And Yet it Does Exist: The Intelligence of Calm] is the name of the artistic exploration project by the gecko art duo for the year 2026. This ancient Greek term expresses a particular ethical attitude of the human individual toward oneself and toward the world. It is, among other things, about prudence, temperance, acting with restraint—and ultimately, about wisdom. A drawing by Alexander Kluge has inspired the actions in the gecko art project Sophrosyne. With Philosophen, die auf Schildkröten reiten [Philosophers Riding on Turtles]—the title of the image—the artist duo associates a productive slowness and diligence that fosters deep thought.

Based on the audio feature format, gecko art has been working for many years to expand its live audio performances through literary-poetic and performative-participatory concepts. Often, gecko art art objects—created specifically for audio projects and their presentations—are also incorporated into the performances. In Sophrosyne, these are the stick masks, a marionette representing the “essence of time,” and a small rotating object called the Sophrosynergon.

Evelyn Blumenau, born in 1963, lives and works in Vienna. She is an actress, author, composer and vocalist, as well as co-founder of the art group gecko art. She works as an actor in and is author of plays and radio plays as part of numerous street art projects and audio exhibitions. She has released 11 albums with the music group NoviSad. Concert tours have taken her to the USA, the United Kingdom, and Georgia, among other places. She can be heard as a reading performer and speaker in art projects and audio features. Her literary pieces revolve around the curiosities of everyday life and many an in-between space of outer and inner perception.

Walter Kreuz, born in 1958, lives and works in Vienna. He is an actor and co-founder of the art group gecko art. He has acted in plays by Frisch, Dürrenmatt, and Shakespeare, among others. As an outdoor performer, he designed, built and moved giant puppets and listening objects through European cities. The “street audio drama” format he developed combines open-air performance, live audio drama, and object art “on wheels.” In his literary publications (including Karlas Lauf gegen die Raumzeit [Karla’s run against space-time], edition roesner 2008, Sekundenbruch auf Straße 4 [Fracture of a second on road 4], edition splitter 2018), he constantly explores interactions between language and time.

Evelyn Blumenau and Walter Kreuz have received numerous international awards for their gecko art audio projects and radio features.
https://www.geckoart.at/sophrosyne-erkundung-an-den-ufern-stiller-wasser/