Gabi Hajek-Renner (internationally distinguished artist, WBA member and multiple world champion in bodypainting as well as owner of Austria’s Makeup School) has been working together with light artist and underwater photographer Martin Aigner and a dedicated team under the name “Reefvillage – Creating New Life!” for the creation of new habitats for the preservation of the underwater world. A number of unique projects have already been launched to raise money for the construction of coral reefs in regions where natural reefs have been destroyed.

For example, in 2018 and 2019, the sale of the REEFCALENDER, which set a world record for bodypainting on the Philippine island of Negros and on the Maldives created new habitats for underwater flora and fauna. Another project was completed on Monday, August 30, 2021 at the Sea Glam Gala of the Schlosshotel Falkensteiner in Velden am Wörthersee. At the Sound & Fashion Charity Evening in favour of Reefvillage, visitors were able to marvel at an international fashion show led by Creative Director Wolfgang Reichl. Musically accompanied by Eurovision Song Contest participant Vincent Bueno. The highlight of the evening, however, was the auction of an impressive camouflage body painting which was created together with the leading and freshly baked Miss Europa 2021 Beatrice Körmer, Gabi Hajek-Renner and Martin Aigner.

The picture was auctioned for 15,000 euros and sure with it again the construction of a new reef village.

More about Gabi Hajek-Renner// Austria's Make up School
More about the „Reefvillage- Creating New Life“

We are happy to introduce our new programs for 2021 by the World Bodypainting Association & the World Bodypainting Festival. We have created in the past a huge amount of content which we, with our international well known WB Academy Instructors, would like to open up especillay for you together.
 
You can get this content now ONLINE and we are very happy to share the first session in October: "Action Bodypainting" with Mike Shane, October, 27th 2021

Mike Shane was the first to pioneer this body-painting variant, which creates masterful dynamic colour combinations that continue to "live" on his models during the performance. This new performance variation combines models and canvas to create an overall work of art. For the first time he will share his secrets and show a demonstration of how such a painting can work!

Booking

15 Euro for WBA members only

(50% discount valid until October, 2nd 2021 for WBA members only, request your voucher code: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , normal price Euro 30) 

It’s now been the 24th World Bodypainting Festival we have been organizing and once again it was a very different experience. The pandemic lasts another season so we decided to organize beside the World Championships and Special Awards online, many more activities on site in the host city Klagenfurt.

We have seen a lot of programs within the festival week from 18 – 24 July and everything went very well.

The reason was simply the amazing support from the WBF Crew, and the host city Klagenfurt as well as our supporters of the festival, namely in first place Kryolan Professional Make-up.
We were very honored to have the cities officials visiting our programs, the mayor, vice-mayor the tourism and cultural directors and many more. We from WB-Production are very thankful for the help of many. The dear judging team spending a lot of hours behind the computers to review thousands of images. We had incredible talents within our WB-Academy programs. These masterclasses in many different topics such as bodypainting, airbrush, make-up and hair were streamed online. Those on site the access was free of charge.

We had artists who performed with their models on many different squares in the old town of Klagenfurt. We have seen stunning performances, where the art of body painting delivered awareness for various problems in our world. We had two wonderful exhibitions, “The memory of water” in the city gallery by Vilija Vitkute and Bodypainting Illusions by Gesine Marwedel in the K1 Artspace.

The only live competition was the world championship in camouflage bodypainting. That was quiet tasking not only for the artists but also for us as the organizers. The weather, the light conditions the timing, we are so thankful for the participants and the judges to make that happen.

We talked a lot and laughed in the daily recaps with host Alex Barendregt and co-host of the festival TV Filippo ioco. Every day at 7 PM they had their live stream and the show got funnier by the days. Some people were commenting that they were like Statler and Waldorf from the muppet show. All of these activities with so much passion was captured by our amazing photo and video crew. We were editing the whole week the content from early morning till late night to show our viewers, a full review of all activities in Klagenfurt and the online competitions.

We had the WBF Creative Hotspots around the world and connected to them during the week. We got as well footage from these spots for our BIG TV styled FINAL Show. It was at 2 1/2 hours long broadcast from a very special and classic location, the concert house Klagenfurt. We had support by artist performing on stage such as Mike Shane and Johannes Stoetter, we had amazing interview partners, and got accompanied by the funk band Papas got Soul. For this big TV Show we had different camera angles a camera crane, show light and a great TV director. We had make up artist Einat Dan backstage with Anna Barendregt making everybody look stunning.

https://youtu.be/2BVWkTUQxp4

Thanks to all of you, who made this show real, on stream and on KT1 TV.

TV Recording >>> edited Version without commercial breaks <<<

We congratulate the new World Champions and winners of the Special and Amateur Awards. 
For the next year we will have something big in mind! We are very looking forward to welcoming you all for the 25th anniversary!
Keep connected, stay healthy and see you in Carinthia, the south of Austria from 17 – 23 July 2022.

All results, photo galleries and details about the upcoming 25th anniversary of the World Bodypainting Festival in 2022 are available n the Website https://bodypainting-festival.com/ 

Join us for the 24th

World Bodypainting Festival 2021

from 18 -24 July in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee / AUSTRIA.

We are celebrating visual culture and music including the World Championships, Special and Amateur Awards Online but with many activities on site! Find all programs and latest information at

www.bodypainting-festival.com

Sei dabei am 24.

World Bodypainting Festival

vom 18. - 24. Juli 2021 in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee.

Alle Programme sind online auf www.bodypainting-festival.com

To keep all of our artist community connected, we decided to create 8 ONLINE Awards - World Championships, Special Awards and Amateur Awards - with a similar format to last year's covid edition.

PLUS, we will have many small programs in Klagenfurt, such as:

• World Awards in Camouflage Bodypainting
• FREE WB Academy Workshops for participants
• Installation ART projects
• Art exhibitions
• You can join the Online contest by using the Goethepark as a location.

+++++ € 8.250 Money Prizes & € 10.000 in Product Prizes in Total +++++

Imagine Corona Virus wiping out your income, loosing your father to suicide and then being diagnosed with ALS all within a few months. This year has been a hard one for many people around the world but for Rachel Deboer in San Francisco the challenges have come hard and fast.

Rachel is a substitute teacher, facepainter and entertainer. Covid 19 decimated all three of those industries. Now she is in the beginning stages of finding a way to deal with her diagnosis for a condition that has a mortality rate of 20 to 48 months with 10-20% of ALS patients surviving longer than 10 years. Rachel has shown amazing strength in finding her way through the diagnostic process and searching through the therapy options.

This can be an isolating and exhausting process. We would like to fund a trip to the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria for 2021 including flights, accommodation and travel costs for Rachel. This would give Rachel a chance to connect to her international artistic family for a week of love and support.

Lets make this dream of returning to her special artistic home, come true. (The gofundme for her monthly medical costs is under another page)
Step 1. Make a donation, something you can afford to do on a regular basis or a once off larger sum.
Step 2. Make a short video, selfie or text post on social media with a message of love and support for Rachel.
Step 3. Share the gofundme link with your posting and tag Rachel so she sees your message!

Let your message be inspired by her! Paint your face, write a silly song or poem, put filters on your selfie or find your favorite quote. Let your moment of giving be a moment to lift and connect both of you. You don’t have to have met Rachel to be inspired by her and show some love.
This fund has the goal of being paid out before her trip to Austria in July 2021 unless travel restrictions make that impossible in which case other travel arrangements will be made with her.
Please don’t: Tell her how to think, feel or act about her diagnosis. This is her journey. Lets see how beautifully her networks can come together from all around the world to love one, as we would all want to be loved.

Go Fund Me for the community Event 2021

Rachel's Facebook Call

Go Fund Me Donations for monthly treatment

I took this long exposure shot on a 30km hike in banff national park, after a few hours of route finding to shoot an isolated turns out I like any of those photos.

• AI is making considerable strides not only in commercial applications.
• It’s more than giving the viewer a feel-something moment.
• I find this process enjoyable because it renders any single output.

2020 - how did you as an artist in Spain experience the time in spring when Corona reached Europe?

2020 has definitely been a mixed bag of emotions, challenges, and self-discovery. While parts of the world and Madrid were being bombarded with COVID, Barcelona was business as usual for a couple of weeks, and eventually, the virus made its way into Barcelona and we went into lockdown. Two days before the lockdown I flew to Gibraltar to judge their Bodypainting competition and on the day of my return, Gibraltar went into lockdown. Living in a city, during the confinement I was very fortunate to have a patio and Rosie. I have always worked from home so in many ways, nothing really had changed for me. I still had my grocery store, bakery outings, and walks with Rosie. I would say that my freedom to go out at any time was missing and my trips to the art store. Fortunately, I had enough materials to continue producing art for my agents during the entire confinement as some worked from home and others deemed essential,
as for the Gallery being closed, I was getting government assistants. Before I left for Gibraltar, I started working on two bodypainting projects, a "Salted Carmel Rootbeer Float", and a "Caramel Vanilla Float" I painted one of the models before I left and was to continue with the second model and project elements on my return. With everything closed down, I was forced to order my elements from the internet. Eventually, I completed the Salted Carmel Rootbeer Float and have yet to finish the "Caramel Vanilla Float".

Does the global pandemic also affect your art or does your art help you to deal with it?

Thankfully during and after the confinement, I have been producing art. I also took part in a worldwide COVID-19 documentary where
I documented my day to day routines during this period. Creating my art did help me tremendously, emotionally, and spiritually.

Is there something that you take with you from 2020 into a new "normality"?

I believe that 2020 in modern times has definitely been a year of loss and reflection for humanity, like no other year before it. 2020 has taught me to cherish what I have and what I have achieved in life. It also forced me to think of and consider what is important to me. It has definitely been a year of self-reflection and self-awareness. As we near the end, I find myself in a weird state of mind where I am constantly confused, questioning my every move, happy/sad, and dealing with motivation and anxiety attacks. I can only hope that this will go away soon with the rest of 2020.

How was it for you not being allowed to organize your charity project regarding breast cancer awareness?

I was very much looking forward to the PINK-London2020 and the LGBTI Erotica exhibition in the gallery but like the entire entertainment & artistic industry coming to a halt. Not being able to organize both events has been very sad and discouraging. I only hope that 2021 will have a better outcome for us all.

Dear Filippo - thank you very much for the insight you gave us!

We look forward to seeing you again in 2021 at one of the WBA events or the 24th World Bodypainting Festival in Klagenfurt (AT)!

More about Filippo: http://www.iocobodyart.com or www.filippoioco.com (also on Instagram)