Katrin Hornek, Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer, Zosia Hołubowska, and Jeanette Pacher in conversation testing grounds is an immersive live installation conceived by Katrin Hornek and developed in a collaborative process involving artists as well as researchers and scientists from different fields. It addresses the measurable evidence and effects of radioactive fallout dispersed around the world as a result of heavy testing of nuclear weapons, especially during the Cold War era. Listen to the artist Katrin Hornek, choreographer Karin Pauer, writer and dancer Sabina Holzer, sound artist Zosia Hołubowska, and the curator Jeanette Pacher talk about the project and its coming about from their respective perspectives, but also what it means to work collaboratively so closely. The conversation was recorded on May 13, 2024 in the context of the exhibition. Katrin Hornek testing grounds In collaboration with Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer, and Zosia Hołubowska 8.3. – 2.6.2024 With her artistic oeuvre and curatorial practice, Katrin Hornek playfully engages with the strange paradoxes of living in the age of the Anthropocene, that is, the new geologic epoch where the effects of capitalism, colonialism, and extractivism are written into the body of the earth. She asserts a more complex understanding of the entwinement of so-called nature and culture that recognizes that our bodies and cultures are substantially and spiritually connected with other creatures and the elements that make up our world. As an artistic strategy, Hornek follows the stories and traces of the material world into their countless networks to create narratives. More Katrin Hornek (*1983, Austria) studied performative art and sculpture in Vienna and Copenhagen. She is a member of the Anthropocene Commons network and teaches at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Department of Site-Specific Art). Recent exhibitions at Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano (2022), Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt (2021), Riga Biennale (2020), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019). Awarded the Msgr. Otto Mauer Prize (2021). www.katrinhornek.net Karin Pauer (*1983, Austria) is a performer and choreographer. The exploration of relations, in-betweens, empathy, and togetherness informs all her works. She negotiates these notions combining embodied choreographic practices with language, visual arts, and live music. Her works have been shown in various Viennese institutions as well as at local and international festivals. www.karinpauer.com Sabina Holzer (*1966, Austria) works as a dancer, choreographer and author in the field of extended choreography. She is concerned with practices of community, ecology, philosophy, materiality, science fiction and poetry. Her collaborative performances, interventions and texts are shown and published locally and internationally. www.cattravelsnotalone.at Zosia Hołubowska (1988, Poland) is a sound artist, queer music activist, researcher, and producer. With performances, sound installations, radio works and soundscapes, they work on topics of queering archives, healing practices, and interspecies intimacy.   Performance: Martina De Dominicis, Cat Jimenez, Mani Obeya, Karin Pauer The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.   Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. Eberhard Editing Director: Katrin Hornek Editor: Paul Macheck Programmed by the board of the Secession Produced by Jeanette Pacher