Mz. Baltazars Laboratory

Open Lab and Exhibition: “Beautiful Dzadza (q***ring the concept of elopement)” by Salina Abaza

Curation and Open Lab by Performatorium

WHEN:
Open Lab: 21.-22.3.2026
Exhibition: 23.3.-10.4.2026

opening hours/Öffnungszeiten:
21.3., 13-17h
22.3., 11-15h
26.3., 14-16h
10.4., 16-19h
… and on demand/und auf Anfrage: [email protected]


About:

The story of beautiful Dzadza has been hidden away in a time capsule waiting to be activated in other times and places such as Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory. The time capsule takes the form of an old box. It contains different elements as “evidence” and “documents” of an elopement that took place in an undefined time in the Caucasus region between Dzadza and her lover, a woman. Among the documents are letters written in Abkhazian and Circassian languages, that were exchanged between the two, providing us today with backdrop information about the elopement and the nature of this relationship. The box also includes a song from Circassian folklore which is named after beautiful Dzadza and tells the story of her elopement.
The time capsule shows the patriarchal tradition of eloping through a q***r lens, drawing questions on the nature of what is real and historically true, considering the factual erasure of q***r history across the world.

About the open lab:

During the open lab, which navigates between curation, mediation, and participatory performance, Performatorium (Olivia Jaques/Marlies Surtmann) translates the work of Salina Abaza into the time and space of Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory. The public is welcome to join this live process. No prior knowledge is required to attend the open lab. You are welcome to simply be present as an observer or to actively participate.

See you there! 🩶

THIS SATURDAY: HTML Zine Club VS AI Crawlers
Workshop and Talk by Nami Kim


Are you bored by Social Media, filled with AI-Slops and unwanted data collections by tech giants?
Are you instead interested in a hand-crafted or personal web, that gives users space for safer expressions?
HTML Zine Club VS AI Crawlers is an event, that combines a talk and a workshop. It invites everyone, who is interested in the DIY or poetic web and as well seeking for the question, how to keep the web safer? HTML Zine Club is a small web community, where hand-made webpages are hosted. Nami Kim, admin of HTML Zine Club, will share her current research on safety and security issues of the personalised web.
At the event you can expect an introduction into hand-coded websites and playful webpage-encrypting methods to block AI Crawlers. Come by and explore!

Additional information:
No technical knowledge is required. You are welcome to simply listen or actively participate. Feel free to bring your laptop, if you would like to try out the introduced techniques.

Workshop language: English and German
The workshop is free of charge.
Please register: [email protected]

See you there! 💙

FINISSAGE: This Friday, 30.1.2026, 19:00

We are warmly inviting to the finissage of current exhibition My Tool, My Choice💜

Featuring:
DOMINIK EINFALT, LIDIA FILATOVA, RYTA KULYK, TARA LUGER, JOHANNA PAULER, RUBEN ZELLWEGER, MARTA KAROLĪNE ZIŅĢĪTE

Dominik, Lidia, Ryta, Tara, Johanna, Ruben and Marta are setting up an exhibition at Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory. It displays a great deal of humour, sometimes also their powerlessness, creates analogue spaces for thoughts, and invites visitors to reclaim old hardware. It creates small truths and allows even smaller fakes to grow. It builds art that becomes aware of its building blocks and materials again. The immeasurable abundance of reclaiming sovereignty over the common scope for action in the post-digital world.

See you soon!