Life Ball 2009 The four Elements of Life Ball: 2009 - Let Love flow! The 17th Life Ball on 16th May 2009 is the start of a four-year cycle: the elements water, earth, air and fire metaphorically stand for the central symbols of life in their artistic implementation. Vienna (18th December 2008) - In the previous years each Life Ball presented itself thematically very different. This year though the team surrounding Gery Keszler decided to develop a concept valid for the next four years - starting with the 17th Life Ball an 16th May 2009 and concluding with the 20th edition, the jubilee ball in 2012. In the centre of the artistic implementation are the elements water, earth, air and fire. Powerful archaic symbols but still enormously progressive in their value. It is still these four elements that feed the world, back the ecological balance, take a vital role for health and serve the economic development - for a start simply make life possible. Water - the element of 2009 - is the start of all life and the evolution. The Earth feeds us. Air lets us breath and carries us over the continents. And the discovery of fire even was the start of civilisation. The element water marks the start of this cycle on 16th May 2009 - as a central symbol of life. Clean water is the base for all human existence. It regulates the circle of nature is the central need of economical progressing. The scarcity of water brings hunger, illness and misery. Especially in countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, in countries where the Life Ball acts within international projects, severe scarcity of water prevails. However when water is available in abundance it can even bring deserts to life. The Life Ball 2009 especially focuses its attention to this distinctive allegory of extremes in our world. Musically as well as theatrically the Life Ball theme 2009 is largely along the line of the baroque, which in its inconsistency picked up the visual language of the mythological history of the ancient world and converted it in a new way. But in its staging it is obliged to the here and now. The audience can expect a vast number of opulent surprises - a grand part of the opening ceremony production of the coming Life Ball will happen on, by and in water. This way the show in front of Vienna's City Hall strongly emphasises the elemental force of water and its central value for life itself. 
Foto: Michael Grinner |