About
I am working as a theatre and performance scholar, culture maker, and performance artist. Since September 2023, I am serving as the director of the Goethe-Centre in Yerevan, Armenia.
My artistic interest focuses on the notion of the mundane, modes of the everyday, and what is generally thought of as belonging to the ‘Oikos’. I research the notions of ‘home’ and belonging within art-in-context and community performance with a strong focus on the connection to the more-than-human world and its natural ecology. I have worked as a director and initiator of artistic processes and projects as well as collaborator, co-creator, dramaturge, and facilitator with other artists. In my artistic work, I am interested in performative processes that explore the aesthetics of the mundane, ‘small forms of performance’ as well as the interplay between human and non-human actors. Of special importance are questions of representation and expression of individual and collective history within the body and one’s individual and collective story. Therefore, my main interest lies in the exploration of forms of community theatre and the work with non-professional performers.
Sharing a long-lasting collaboration with the voice artist and vocal coach Paulina Miu, I have developed a strong interest in the (mis-)use of voice and song, both within the ‘black-box’ as well as in site-specific contexts, especially in (post-)natural environments. In my work as curator/ facilitator and culture maker, I focus on the interrelation of bodies and their environments, especially on the exploration of the idea of belonging and ‘home’ in a social but also political, and ecological sense. Of particular interest is how those questions are also negotiated in a broader, transcultural sense, especially in the context of Central and Eastern Europe, which are developed a.o. with the research project 'Building Peripheries'. My work was shown among others at Malta Festival Poznań, Frankfurt LAB, Teatr Kana (Szczecin), Wegajty Festival (Węgajty, Olsztyn), Vougascapes (Vouzela, Portugal), Mullae Artspace (Seoul), and Munetik Symposium (Yerevan).
My theoretical interests comprise a wide variety of research topics with a strong focus on the philosophical, ecopolitical, and social implications of contemporary performance art, aesthetics, and the ‘performative power’ of (un)making. I try to understand, how we both 'do' and 'signify' through (non-)artistic performance our ways of being, our ways of creating community, and the experience of 'belonging to' and building a world. A special focus lies on the interplay between performative processes and questions of ecology and the earth system, topics that I explored at large in my dissertation Anthropocene Engagement: an Aesthetic of the Performing Arts in a More-than-Human Age. Here I critically analyze the significance of performative mechanisms between human and non-human actors both within the new eco-political regime of the Anthropocene as well as in contemporary performance art.
Recent and ongoing explorations of these topics comprise a.o. the transscalar analysis of motion (Anthropocene Movement) and reflections on the productive and generative power of performance art and aesthetics within the concept of Generativity.
I have published on dance-, performance, and theatre, both in German, as well as in Polish and English anthologies and peer-reviewed journals (a.o. Performance Research, Polish Theatre Journal). I taught classes and workshops amongst others at Justus-Liebig University, Adam-Mickiewicz University Poznań, Musicacademy Nürnberg, and in the context of different art institutions and festivals. I studied cultural studies and theatre directing, and hold an M.A. in Applied Theatre Studies (JLU Giessen). I have completed my Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Free University Berlin. My research was funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (2016-2020).
From 2015 to 2017 I was part of the managing team of Centrum Amarant in Poznan, Poland – a venue for culture, art, and neighborhood, where I was responsible for the program of performance-in-context. There, I directed and curated the german-polish residency program 'residents//mieszkańcy' which focused on art-in-context residencies, and founded the 'Teatr Obywatelski', Poznańs first citizen-theatre group in the Jeżyce district.
Between 06/2021 and 07/2023, I was working with the direction of the Performing Arts Programm Berlin. My focus lay on cultural policy and the development of political initiatives for the art and cultural sector, especially in the field of rehearsal- and working spaces for the arts. I took part in the "Initiative for a Cultural Promotion law" (Initiative für ein Kulturfördergesetz) and represented the interests of LAFT Berlin (Berlin State Association for the Independent Performing Arts e.V.) with the board of PROSA (Project to Create Artistic Working Spaces) of the Coalition of the Independent Scene of all Arts Berlin.