Maria Klassenberg. Home choreographies
Invitation to take part in performance online
Performance goes on! Co-create the Home choreographies performance and be like Maria Klassenberg.
This radical visual artist and performer, active since 1970s, held all of her performances at home. They were witnessed only by her friends and close ones, who were sworn to silence. Everyone can partake in Maria Klassenberg’s Home choreographies. The participants will reenact it live in their own homes, following the artist’s instructions.
Everyone who wants to participate in the performance, need only to submit an online application, log into Zoom platform and follow the instructions. The actions shall be initiated by TR Warszawa actors: Jan Dravnel and Justyna Wasilewska together with the actors from the Volksbühne Berlin ensemble: Sarah Franke and Daniel Nerlich. You are welcome to join us on Zoom even if you are not planning to participate actively. The entire performance will be streamed live on TR Warszawa and Volksbühne Berlin Facebook pages. The recording will be used in a planned theatre play and an exhibition of Maria Klassenberg’s works.
- Who is Maria Klassenberg?
- Visual artist and performer Maria Klassenberg did not exist, she was made up. She was brought to life in March 2019 by director Katarzyna Kalwat and a group of other creators, who meticulously reconstructed her biography, creative legacy and archive. Maria Klassenberg was created as a forgotten Polish visual artist and performer, who started her career in 1970s. Her avant-garde, radical works met with the rejection and lack of understanding from the anachronistic institutions. The artist, ahead of her time, was never adequately recognized.
- However being a fiction is not the same as not being the truth. Klassenberg’s nonexistence symbolizes all rejected, remarkable heroes of Polish avant-garde, whose work exists outside the official artistic circuit. Development of the biography and creative archive of Maria Klassenberg is a tribute to the creators who, throughout the centuries, were excluded from the canon of world art, due to fact that art and cultural institutions failed to understand them. The artistic archive of Maria Klassenberg from 1970-80 was created by Aneta Grzeszkowska, Polish visual artist collaborating with the Raster Gallery.
- Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies
- A step by step reveal of the project, centered around the biography and artistic legacy of Maria Klassenberg, took form of theatrical installations presented in galleries. From the very beginning the project was based on the international collaboration and research. Presentation of the work in progress Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies took place in March and June 2019 in cooperation with the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art as a part of the Generation After. Showcase and the SIBMAS Conference.
- The final stage of this project will be an international premiere of the theatre performance Maria Klassenberg. Ecstasies coupled with the exhibition of the artist’s works. The project is coproduced by TR Warszawa and Volksbühne Berlinwithin the frame of POSTWEST festival. The artistic festival organized by Volksbühne and financed by Kulturstiftung des Bundes presents selected productions by theatres from Central and Eastern Europe. Performances examine the conflicts, concepts and stereotypes surrounding the old division: East and West.
