Right on cue to coincide with the Beethoven anniversary year, Thomas Geiger is engaging in a dialogue with the composer, who was born 250 years ago. Yes, but how? Well, by paying a visit to the great exponent of the First Viennese School of classical music on Beethovenplatz. In Geiger’s multidisciplinary works, public spaces confront private premises, giving rise to surprising situations. In his Bust Talks performance series, Geiger sees busts and masks as potential interlocutors whose experiences and views can have a new impact on our contemporary lives. But will the bronze statue – for all of Beethoven’s deafness – respond to the investigative questions? Sensitively yet forcefully, Geiger strikes up a conversation with the past. Here a personality no longer able to speak for himself re-awakens as a fresh new effigy. What was it like back then? What’s it like today? And what will it be like tomorrow? Beethoven and Geiger, both Viennese by choice, celebrate an artist’s talk of a special kind as Geiger sounds out the birthday boy …