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Judy in the Sky

Fri, 2 and Sat, 3 May 2025

„Cel­e­brate in the name of Judy who loved to cel­e­brate peo­ple, dead and alive!“

Aux Gazelles, Rahl­gasse 5, 1060 Vienna

Let’s com­mem­o­rate our beloved friend Judith Schoßböck in this cel­e­bra­tion of her life and lega­cy. Judith died self-deter­mined on 10 Decem­ber 2024 with ME/CFS and severe con­comi­tant ill­ness­es. Her life as an uncom­pro­mis­ing artist, activist, sci­en­tist and so much more will remain an inspi­ra­tion for us. We’ll gath­er to let her light shine!

Friends, loved ones, Black Ferk Stu­dio and the Aus­tri­an Burn­ers are organ­is­ing the two-day cel­e­bra­tion in line with Judith’s wish­es and plans.

Thank you to the Aus­tri­an Burn­ers Kun­st- und Kul­turvere­in and Chris­tine Ruck­endor­fer (Aux Gazelles) for their gen­er­ous sup­port, with­out which that event couldn’t take place in this form.

One week­end, 3 events:
The cel­e­bra­tions con­sist of three indi­vid­ual parts, which will take us, in terms of con­tent and emo­tion, from shared grief to expres­sion through art and the cel­e­bra­tion of life. In addi­tion to on-site par­tic­i­pa­tion, there are also online par­tic­i­pa­tion options.

⇒REGISTER FOR THE MEMORIAL

⇒TICKETS FOR METAMORPHOSIS

Fundrais­ing:
The event is a fundrais­er for research and ini­tia­tives for ME/CFS (WE&ME Foun­da­tion and Aus­tri­an Soci­ety for ME/CFS).

Fri, 2 May — 18:00 — 24:00

MEmorial

Farewell and mourn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for friends

“How hap­py am I to have some­thing in my life that makes say­ing good­bye so hard.” (A.A. Milne, “Win­nie-the-Pooh”)

Togeth­er we say our good­byes to Judith Schoßböck with rit­u­als of mourn­ing and remem­brance. The themes of death, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and pain will take cen­tre stage. Bring memen­tos for Judith’s altar and immerse your­self in your grief. Leave Judith a final mes­sage in the ‘Burn­ing Ferk’ piglet urn, where the let­ters will be burnt after the event. Con­nect with Judith on a breath­ing med­i­ta­tion jour­ney, join the Cult of Judith, expe­ri­ence a spe­cial bed­side per­for­mance and enjoy art that she saw dai­ly from her bed.

Get involved: Make what you miss about Judy in the world vis­i­ble and tan­gi­ble through a work­shop, a rit­u­al, a speech (live, record­ed or broad­cast live), a song or a poem — get involved in your own way and become part of this col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence of grief.

Ori­en­tal feast:
As part of the evening you are invit­ed to take part in the ori­en­tal feast (price per per­son: €40, pay­ment on site), reg­is­tra­tion required (see below).

Dress­code:
Let your grief and appre­ci­a­tion for Judith be expressed in your cloth­ing. Not sure what colour to wear? — How about the colour blue? It sym­bol­is­es mourn­ing in con­nec­tion with the death of a per­son suf­fer­ing from ME/CFS.

Free entry:
Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the memo­r­i­al is free of charge and is open to all friends of Judith to give them space to say good­bye and express their grief. Reg­is­tra­tion is required to attend. Ori­en­tal feast: €40 p.p.

Online par­tic­i­pa­tion:
In addi­tion to on-site par­tic­i­pa­tion, there is also the option of online par­tic­i­pa­tion in the memo­r­i­al. Please also reg­is­ter using the form.

⇒REGISTER FOR THE MEMORIAL

Qui­et zone & pas­sen­ger trans­port: There will be a qui­et zone on site (a dark­ened room with the pos­si­bil­i­ty to lie down), which can be used by chron­i­cal­ly ill peo­ple or peo­ple with oth­er restric­tions. We are work­ing on enabling a pas­sen­ger trans­port with­in Vien­na to and from the event loca­tion for disabled/chronically ill per­sons. If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact our inclu­sion team: metamorphosis@burners.at.

Note on pho­to and film record­ings: The event will be doc­u­ment­ed on film and pho­to­graph­i­cal­ly to enable the inclu­sion of peo­ple who are unable to attend in per­son. It will be pos­si­ble to stay in areas where filming/photography is not possible.

Sat, 3 May — 12:00 — 18:00

Art for ME

Exhi­bi­tion and performances

“The world is our oys­ter in our fan­ta­sy.” (Judith Schoßböck)

Judith has cam­paigned from her bed­side for more research and bet­ter care for peo­ple with chron­ic ill­ness­es and has set major mile­stones in aware­ness rais­ing for ME/CFS and con­comi­tant ill­ness­es. “Art for ME” puts Judith’s art and that of peo­ple con­nect­ed to her, some of whom are chron­i­cal­ly ill them­selves, cen­tre stage and thus becomes an inclu­sive plat­form for those who, as #mil­lion­s­miss­ing, have hard­ly any oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­tic­i­pate in social life. Judith com­pared her exis­tence to the feel­ing of being an astro­naut invol­un­tar­i­ly wear­ing a space­suit that shield­ed her from the out­side world. Nev­er­the­less, she felt deeply con­nect­ed to the peo­ple in her life and to the out­side world. At ‘Art for ME’, videos, pic­tures, objects and per­for­ma­tive art will address stages of Judith’s life as well as the real­i­ty of an every­day life char­ac­terised by a seri­ous chron­ic ill­ness. The event also serves to raise funds for the WE&ME Foun­da­tion and the Aus­tri­an Soci­ety for ME/CFS.

Pro­tec­tion zone, qui­et room & per­son­al trans­port:
Between 12 noon and 4 pm, part of the event (sep­a­rate area on the 1st floor) may only be entered wear­ing a mask to allow at-risk groups to par­tic­i­pate with­out addi­tion­al health risks.
There will be a qui­et zone on site (a dark­ened room with the pos­si­bil­i­ty to lie down), which can be used by chron­i­cal­ly ill peo­ple or peo­ple with oth­er restric­tions. We are work­ing on enabling a pas­sen­ger trans­port with­in Vien­na for disabled/chronically ill per­sons to and from the event loca­tion. If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact our inclu­sion team: metamorphosis@burners.at.

Free admis­sion, pub­lic event.

Ori­en­tal brunch:
Dur­ing the event there is the pos­si­bil­i­ty to enjoy an ori­en­tal brunch (€28 p.p.), no reser­va­tion necessary.

Online par­tic­i­pa­tion:
In addi­tion to on-site par­tic­i­pa­tion, there is also the option of online par­tic­i­pa­tion via streaming/zoom (15:00 — 18:00). The online tick­et for MEta­mor­pho­sis on Sat­ur­day evening (see below) is also valid as an online tick­et for ‘Art for ME’.

Photo/film pol­i­cy:
The event will be doc­u­ment­ed to enable the inclu­sion of peo­ple who can­not attend in person.

Press infor­ma­tion:
We are look­ing for­ward to the par­tic­i­pa­tion of media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in ‘Art for ME’. In order to ensure a smooth process, please reg­is­ter at irene.schanda@posteo.de.

Sat, 3 May — 8:00 pm — 4:00 am

MEtamorphosis

Par­ty and cel­e­bra­tion of life

“All good things are wild and free.” (Hen­ry David Thoreau)

Every­thing is in flux, and the only con­stant is imper­ma­nence. Is death the end or just anoth­er trans­for­ma­tion on a long jour­ney? How can we emo­tion­al­ly suc­ceed in trans­form­ing grief into deeply felt joy and cel­e­brate life?

At MEta­mor­pho­sis, we ded­i­cate our­selves to this trans­for­ma­tion exper­i­ment togeth­er. Judith was an enthu­si­as­tic and com­mit­ted mem­ber of the Burn­ing Man com­mu­ni­ty. It was impor­tant to her that life was cel­e­brat­ed after her death — with every­thing that makes a burn­er par­ty (see ‘Info on the 10+1 Burn­ing Man prin­ci­ples’). She want­ed a par­ty where grief would be trans­formed into a cel­e­bra­tion of life: with live music, per­for­mances, DJs, The bed-based clown-expe­ri­ence, a nail salon, a fash­ion show with a clothes auc­tion, piglets (Judith’s favourite ani­mals), all kinds of creepy things and much more. This colour­ful cel­e­bra­tion is intend­ed to car­ry on Judith’s spir­it — to use her words:

„Cel­e­brate life, enjoy the small and big things: I hope my sto­ry can be seen as that of a per­son who made the best of the cards she was dealt. Thank you so much to my fam­i­ly, my love, my net­work, every­one I’ve ever been in love with, all my friends. Love as much as you can.“

Every­one who knew Judith, every­one who feels con­nect­ed to her sto­ry and to the many com­mu­ni­ties in which she was active, is invit­ed to attend and active­ly par­tic­i­pate in this evening on site or remotely.

Tick­ets:
The event is a fundrais­er, tick­et pur­chas­es will raise funds for the WE&ME Foun­da­tion and the Aus­tri­an Soci­ety for ME/CFS to pro­mote research and aware­ness of ME/CFS.

Tick­et on-site par­tic­i­pa­tion: €10,- plus donation

Tick­et online par­tic­i­pa­tion: €5,- plus donation

A big thank you to the Aus­tri­an Burn­ers Kun­st- und Kul­turvere­in and to Chris­tine Ruck­endor­fer (Aux Gazelles), whose sup­port makes a low basic tick­et price possible.

There is no box office. So make sure you get your tick­et in time!

⇒TICKETS FOR METAMORPHOSIS

On-site par­tic­i­pa­tion & inclu­sion:
The venue is bar­ri­er-free. Due to the expect­ed high num­ber of peo­ple and increased noise lev­el, this event is not suit­able for peo­ple with sen­si­tiv­i­ty to loud­ness and strong sen­so­ry stim­uli. We rec­om­mend online par­tic­i­pa­tion or attend­ing the MEmo­r­i­al on Fri­day or Art for ME on Sat­ur­day afternoon.

Online par­tic­i­pa­tion:
 MEta­mor­pho­sis must also be pos­si­ble from the bed­side! Pur­chas­ing an online tick­et for MEta­mor­pho­sis also enti­tles you to take part in the ‘Art for ME’ art exhi­bi­tion online.

Your cre­ative con­tri­bu­tion:
The face of MEta­mor­pho­sis will be cre­at­ed through co-cre­ation! Do you have an idea, a cre­ative con­tri­bu­tion to con­tribute to the trans­for­ma­tion? Get in touch with us if you

… want to per­form live music or a DJ set: **To the reg­is­tra­tion form** (Dead­line: 10.4.)

… want to con­tribute art / a per­for­mance / a work­shop: Mail to info@blackferkstudio.com

… can’t attend the event your­self, but want to send a con­tri­bu­tion. All infor­ma­tion on this under “Send your contributions”

The 10+1 Burn­ing Man Prin­ci­ples:
The 10+1 Burn­ing Man prin­ci­ples form the basis for this event. At the cen­tre of “Judy in the Sky” is above all Rad­i­cal Inclu­sion, as par­tic­i­pa­tion should be made pos­si­ble for as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble, includ­ing the chron­i­cal­ly ill. The oth­er prin­ci­ples include Gift­ing, Decom­mod­i­fi­ca­tion, Rad­i­cal Self-Reliance, Rad­i­cal Self-Expres­sion, Com­mu­nal Effort, Civic Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Leave No Trace, Par­tic­i­pa­tion, Imme­di­a­cy and Con­sent. By par­tic­i­pat­ing in the event, you agree to abide by the prin­ci­ples. More about the prin­ci­ples 

Excep­tions to the Decom­mod­i­fi­ca­tion Prin­ci­ple: Aux Gazelles will be run­ning the restau­rant and bar dur­ing the event, so it is not per­mit­ted to take food and drink away. In addi­tion, this event is a fundrais­er for ME/CFS — the tick­et price is delib­er­ate­ly kept low in order to col­lect as many dona­tions as possible.

Dress code: Clown, blue, Nurse, Goth, Horse­head — More infor­ma­tion and inspi­ra­tion will fol­low before the event

Foto & video pol­i­cy: MEta­mor­pho­sis will be doc­u­ment­ed on film and pho­to­graph­i­cal­ly to enable peo­ple suf­fer­ing from ME/CFS and oth­ers who are unable to trav­el to par­tic­i­pate virtually. 

Vol­un­teer

“Judy in the Sky” — MEta­mor­pho­sis is organ­ised exclu­sive­ly by vol­un­teers. Join in and con­tribute your unique skills!

Take a vol­un­teer shift: To the vol­un­teer list 

Join the Sig­nal Par­tic­i­pa­tion Group and sup­port the cre­ation of “Judy in the sky”: To the Sig­nal Group 

Join our Slack Work­space and coor­di­nate with teams on select­ed organ­i­sa­tion­al top­ics: To the Slack work­space 

 

Send your con­tri­bu­tions — dead­line is April 10th:

Send your art and mem­o­ries (pho­tos, let­ters, small objects, sto­ries) as part of the memo­r­i­al and exhi­bi­tion. You can send things that remind you of Judy and that you con­nect with her. With the items we build an altar and a wall instal­la­tion.
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Burn­ing Ferk: Send a per­son­al let­ter or post­card for Judith’s piglet urn sculp­ture. After the event, these let­ters will be burned and the urn will be placed on the grave. Please label these let­ters with “Burn­ing Ferk” so that we know what can be burned.
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If you have an idea for a per­for­mance, an art­work or a work­shop, let us know and we will do our best to make it hap­pen.
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You can send audio and video mes­sages that we will show in the exhi­bi­tion.
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Send us (dig­i­tal) pho­tos of your expe­ri­ences with Judith for a pho­to show.
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Send us links to music that you asso­ciate with Judith (prefer­ably Spo­ti­fy). We will play the songs dur­ing the event.
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Send us texts or mes­sages that we can read out for you. Please label these mes­sages with “For read­ing aloud”.
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If you want to par­tic­i­pate remote­ly in any oth­er cre­ative way, please reach out and share your idea with us.
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Please send let­ters or small pack­ages to this address by April 10th at the latest:

Matthias Moll­ner
Black Ferk Stu­dio
Wim­mer­gasse 28/2–3
1050 Vien­na
Aus­tria

Send dig­i­tal con­tri­bu­tions by April 10th at the lat­est via e‑mail to:

info@blackferkstudio.com

Data pri­va­cy for the event

Cooperation partners