Image: Mumok, Vienna
mumok in Vienna is set to host 'Freestyle is A Heart to Beat' by Joce / Persona Compendium as part of ImPulsTanz 2026, with performances scheduled for 30 July and 1 August at 6.30 pm. The museum’s calendar lists the work as an Austrian premiere, with a running time of 45 minutes, and notes that tickets are sold via ImPulsTanz. The page also states that the performance contains explicit content and loud music.
The work is one of eight productions presented at mumok by ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival in 2026, the festival’s 11th visit to the museum. According to mumok’s programme overview, performances in this year’s edition take place on level -2 in Tolia Astakhishvili’s exhibition 'Figure of the Child', in the white cube of mumok kino, and in the museum’s Hofstallung. The museum says the festival’s focus this year is on prominent Vienna-based positions, alongside four premieres and the '[8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series'.
In the programme text for 'Freestyle is A Heart to Beat', Joce is described as a visual artist and dancer from Geneva, with the piece framed through the idea of dance as a living, moving and ever-expanding bodily archive, a “diasporic echo.” The text presents Joce as working in “endless dialogue” with the streets, people, sounds, desires and memories that make up a city, and says the performance brings a specific lived experience into vibration through free improvisation accompanied only by sound from a boombox.
Mumok’s ImPulsTanz overview places Joce among several artists appearing at the museum in the festival’s summer run. It names the opening of the '[8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series' with 'The Aching' by Samir Kennedy, and also lists new works by Ian Kaler, Philipp Gehmacher, Hyeji Nam, Liquid Loft / Chris Haring and Lisa Hinterreithner. The museum says the programme runs through 9 August.
The festival’s presence at mumok is part of a broader summer schedule that also includes guided tours and museum programmes. The museum’s newsletter highlights curator-led tours of the current exhibitions 'Terminal Piece' and 'Tolia Astakhishvili, Figure of the Child', as well as a summer holiday programme for children, young people, families and adults. For the performances in the ImPulsTanz series, mumok notes that holders of an ImPulsTanz ticket receive a 20 percent discount on a full-price museum ticket.
Alongside the Joce performance, mumok’s calendar records several dates and formats for the 2026 festival at the museum: Philipp Gehmacher’s 'doors open close' on 31 July and 2 August, Hyeji Nam’s 'MANSHIN' on 2 and 4 August, Liquid Loft / Chris Haring’s 'HOLD&RESIST Spin-Off Version' on 4 and 6 August, and Lisa Hinterreithner’s 'many in a bed' on 7 and 9 August. The museum identifies the location for Joce’s performance as mumok in Vienna and gives the start time as 6.30 pm on both days.
