Hedda Bauer's project, Belly Belly Bread, is a micro-opera in three acts—a performative and installation-based work exploring the dramaturgy of a diva, the exaggerated expressions of Greek tragedy, and the roles of 1950s mothers at home.
The performance and installation take place in All all all, where the space is transformed with colorful ribbon-knäckebröd drapes. At the center, enormous ceramic shoes are installed to be dragged across the home.
Bauer asks: How do you find your inner diva? Through body and voice exercises, they explore the lives of three (iconic) divas, supported by burring—a belly support exercise.
This bread-home drama places divinity within the domestic sphere, weaving a narrative of sisterhood, conflict, and loyalty.
Protagonists are positioned at home, each embodying a diva figure: the artist-grandmother Catharina Bauer, the modernist power couple Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the divine opera singer Maria Callas. Each plays a distinct role in a newly composed work, in which Hedda Bauer collaborates with composer Cornelia Karlsson from the Copenhagen Conservatory of Music.
During two performances, the audience is invited to back up the diva—supporting Bauer as they sing the opera piece, confronting the divine presence of Maria Callas, failing, and trying again.
Show dates:
Sunday 4 May 2025
Sunday 11 May 2025
Doors at 15:00
CASTA DIVA COMP string quartet:
Jenny Asparro on violin
Marie Therese Nørby on violin
Rebekka Hansli on viola
Tiril Lorås Ystgaard on violoncello
Composer: Cornelia Karlsson
Hedda Bauer (b. 1990, Sweden) works with large-scale installations and performance-based art. They studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, first in the class of Monica Bonvicini, later under Carola Dertnig (BFA 2022), and most recently with Carla Zaccagnini (MFA 2024). Bauer also trained in weaving and textile craftsmanship at Stenebyskolan in Sweden, as well as in millinery at Tillskärarakademien in Gothenburg (2012–2014).
Their performative work is often ephemeral and narrative-driven. In All all all, Bauer uses edible materials to explore and perforate themes of heritage and mental illness. The ephemeral, fragile, and sensory nature of these materials reflects the complexities of mental health—its instability, its often-invisible presence, and the embodied way it is experienced.