On a stage set beneath a giant inflatable octopus sculpture inside a pool, with musicians spread out in the water, selected works by Johann Strauss are sampled, deconstructed and overpainted by five Vienna-based composers.

Together with the theatre company GOD’s ENTERTAINMENT, OCT.opus 25 unfolds as a performative invitation to rethink the waltz as a living, unstable and collective practice. Drawing on fragments, echoes and distortions of Johann Strauss’ music, the pieces move between concert, choreography, performance and installation: real-time linocuts of graphic scores recycling Straussian material, waltzes translated into the hearing range of octopuses, swinging air sirens and sea organs - and tons of roses used to activate a percussion installation. What emerges is a shifting landscape of sound and movement that oscillates between seduction and resistance, nostalgia and disruption — a playful yet critical encounter with cultural memory in public space.