Folkwang

Pina Bausch Guest Professorship

The Folkwang University of the Arts has established the new Pina Bausch Guest Professorship – named after world-famous Folkwang alumna Pina Bausch and in co-operation with the Pina Bausch Foundation – for the 2022/23 winter semester with funding from the NRW state government.

The Pina Bausch Professorship provides an opportunity for internationally acclaimed artists from all disciplines to spend a year at the Folkwang University of the Arts as a guest professor, collaborating with the students to develop new work methods and applying mindsets and research approaches that transcend all boundaries.

Quotes from Folkwang students from the FIPL and Marina Abramović

As participants in the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab (FIPL) with Pina Bausch guest professor Marina Abramović, Folkwang students from various disciplines recount their experiences with the FIPL and the performance artist.
> Quotes as a PDF

10. July 2023

Knapp 10.000 Besucher:innen bei „54 Hours Performances“ mit Folkwang Studierenden im Museum Folkwang

Kuratiert von Marina Abramović und Billy Zhao

Erfolgreicher Abschluss der Pina Bausch Gastprofessur von Marina Abramović


Gestern ging die Ausstellung „54 Hours Performances“ mit 9.686 Besucher:innen erfolgreich im Museum Folkwang zu Ende. An allen Veranstaltungstagen waren die Performances ausgebucht. Am Wochenende bildeten sich wegen der wenigen Restkarten an der Tageskasse zeitweise Schlangen vor dem Einlass. Die Performance-Ausstellung präsentierte die Ergebnisse von Marina Abramovićs einjähriger Arbeit im Rahmen des Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab (FIPL), in dem 24 Folkwang-Studierende unter ihrer Leitung 23 Long Durational Performances entwickelten.

read more
06. July 2023

„54 Hours Performances“ bis 09. Juli im Museum Folkwang

Resonanz und Medienecho der einjährigen Arbeit von Marina Abramović mit Folkwang Studierenden

Seit fast einer Woche begeistert die Ausstellung „54 Hours Performances” mit internationalen Studierenden aller Disziplinen der Folkwang Universität der Künste im Museum Folkwang. Kuratiert von der international renommierten Performance-Künstlerin Marina Abramović zum Abschluss ihrer Pina Bausch Gastprofessur an Folkwang sowie Billy Zhao bietet sich der Öffentlichkeit ein Parcours mit 24 Performenden, die ihre Besucher*innen zur direkten Beteiligung einladen.

read more
30. June 2023

„54 Hours Performances” mit Folkwang Studierenden vom 30.6. bis 9.7. im Museum Folkwang zu sehen

Kuratiert von Marina Abramović und Billy Zhao

Zum Abschluss der Pina Bausch Gastprofessur von Marina Abramović

Heute wurde die Ausstellung „54 Hours Performances” mit internationalen Studierenden aller Disziplinen der Folkwang Universität der Künste und in Anwesenheit der Kultur- und Wissenschaftsministerin des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ina Brandes, im Museum Folkwang eröffnet. Die Performance-Ausstellung stellt die Ergebnisse von Abramovićs einjähriger Arbeit im Rahmen des Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab (FIPL) vor, in dem 24 Folkwang Studierende unter ihrer Leitung 23 Long Durational Performances entwickelten.

Einen ersten Eindruck vorab gibt es im ZDF-Morgenmagazin:
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/zdf-morgenmagazin/abramovic-schueler-stellen-aus-100.html

read more
15. June 2023

PRESSE-EINLADUNG

Presse- & VIP-Preview: Freitag, 30. Juni 2023, 11 Uhr

54 HOURS PERFORMANCES
Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab

Studierende der Folkwang Universität der Künste
Kuratiert von Marina Abramović und Billy Zhao
30. Juni bis 9. Juli 2023

read more
10. May 2023

Folkwang Studierende des Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab zeigen Performance-Ausstellung im Museum Folkwang

„54 Hours Performances” ab 30. Juni, kuratiert von Marina Abramović und Billy Zhao

Online-Vorverkauf startet am 12. Mai 2023: Kostenfreie Time-Slot-Tickets können unter museum-folkwang.de gebucht werden (begrenztes Konzingent)
 

Internationale Studierende aller Disziplinen der Folkwang Universität der Künste arbeiten seit dem Wintersemester 2022/23 mit Pina Bausch Gastprofessorin Marina Abramović. Im Rahmen des Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab haben sie Long Durational Performances entwickelt. Präsentiert werden die Ergebnisse erstmalig öffentlich zum Abschluss der vierten und letzten Arbeitsphase vom 30. Juni bis 9. Juli 2023 im Museum Folkwang.

 

English version below.

read more

Marina Abramović personally:
A look back at the third workshop phase – ‘Cleaning the House’ – in Greece

 

Searching for the present in the present'
-Jerzy Grotowski

Cleaning the House - March 2023

„The location of the workshop was in the mountain archaeological site of old Sparta, of which a big part is a nature reserve. There were beautiful views and possibility of trekking. It was away from the sea and away from the tourists.

For this kind of workshop, isolation and being in nature is very important. Billy and I arrived two days before the group of 20 students from Essen did. We wanted to be sure that everything would be ready for them. Everything inside the house is simple and Spartanic. Just beds, tables, and chairs.

We started the evening, they arrived with a vegetarian, traditional meal brought by the local taverna. Organic, simple, pure.

Their computers, phones, and watches were collected.

For the remainder of the workshop, there was no food, except with water and herbal tea. There was also no talking during the workshop, apart from Billy and me who would give exercises.
For the next five days, they started the day with me ringing the bell around 6:30AM. Going straight from the bed to the outside, doing morning exercises and plunging into cold water.

The photos illustrate some of the exercises they would complete throughout the day:

_Writing the Name (1hr)
_Walking backwards with a mirror (2hr)
_Looking at the primary colors (3hr)
_Blindfolded sitting in nature (2hr)
_Opening and closing the door (3hr)
_Walking in slow motion (5hr)
_Counting Rice and Lentils (6hr)

In between the exercises, they could rest, read. These are a part of Abramović Method, which I developed in the past fifty years of my career.

On my fifth day, we had the first meal, consisting of boil rice, which we ate with our bare hands.

That moment, when we started talking, was one of the most emotional moments of my life. There was a sense of togetherness. Of unity and of connectedness between all of us. The tears just filled my eyes. Looking at all their faces, brought harmony.

The rest of the two days, we spent documenting workshop, talking about the workshop, and discussing the next phase: the show at the Museum Folkwang, where they will perform long durational works 9 days, 6 hours per day.

Billy and I think the workshop Cleaning the House was a necessary link between the first part and last part of our teaching."

Photo moments from the "Cleaning the house" workshop

Fotos: Konstantin Pütz

10. February 2023

Folkwang Studierende des Marina Abramović Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab gastieren im Juli im Museum Folkwang

Die international renommierte Performance-Künstlerin Marina Abramović arbeitet im Rahmen der Pina Bausch Professur an der Folkwang Universität der Künste mit Studierenden aller künstlerischen Disziplinen. Das gemeinsam entwickelte Performance-Projekt wird vom 30. Juni bis 9. Juli 2023 im Museum Folkwang gezeigt.

In vier Workshop-Phasen des Free Interdisciplinary Performance Laboratory erarbeitet Marina Abramović seit Wintersemester 22/23 mit internationalen Studierenden aller Folkwang Disziplinen individuelle und gemeinsame Performances. Zum Abschluss der zweiten Arbeitsphase entschied die Künstlerin, dass die Abschlusspräsentation im Rahmen einer auf neun Tage angelegten „Long Durational Performance“ im Museum Folkwang gezeigt wird. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Fokussierung, Ausdauer und Konzentration der 26 beteiligten jungen Künstler*innen – darunter Sänger*innen, Tänzer*innen, Fotograf*innen, Schauspieler*innen, Regisseur*innen und Komponist*innen im Alter zwischen 17 und 39 Jahren.

read more
20. January 2023

Öffentliche Lecture mit Marina Abramović am 8. Februar um 19:30 Uhr

Live in der Neuen Aula und im Stream

Die international renommierte Performance-Künstlerin Marina Abramović startet in wenigen Tagen die zweite Arbeitsphase mit Folkwang Studierenden im Rahmen ihrer Pina Bausch Professur an der Folkwang Universität der Künste. Beteiligt sind 26 internationale Studierende – darunter Sänger*innen, Tänzer*innen, Fotograf*innen, Schauspieler*innen, Regisseur*innen und Komponist*innen im Alter zwischen 17 und 39 Jahren –, mit denen Marina Abramović in insgesamt vier Workshop-Phasen individuelle und gemeinsame Performances erarbeitet.
 

read more
24. November 2022

Marina Abramović persönlich:

Resümee zur ersten Workshop-Phase und Ausblick auf 2023

„For the first working phase, my intention with the 26 students of the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab was to generate as much of their own personal material as possible.

The students created concepts for group performances and solo long durational performances. Both concepts were performed, with the solo works realized in groups of 4-6, in slots of 1 hour. The class immediately discussed the work after performing. We also made performances on video, where they had to use only their heads as material.

read more
24. November 2022

The Artist Was Present

Resonanz und Medienecho der ersten 10 Tage mit Marina Abramović an Folkwang

Die erste Workshop-Phase mit Pina Bausch Gastprofessorin Marina Abramović ist am Mittwoch, 23. November, zu Ende gegangen. 26 Folkwang Studierende durften dabei sein und im Free Interdisciplinary Performance Laboratory (FIPL) mit ihr arbeiten – 26 junge Künstler*innen aus allen Folkwang Disziplinen, im Alter zwischen 17 und 39 Jahren, und aus neun Nationen.

read more
14. November 2022

International renommierte Performance-Künstlerin Marina Abramović startet ihre Arbeit an der Folkwang Universität der Künste

Auftakt zur ersten Pina Bausch Gastprofessur mit dem Free Interdisciplinary Performance Laboratory für 27 Folkwang Studierende


Heute fand der Auftakt zum Free Interdisciplinary Performance Laboratory (FIPL) mit der prominenten Performance-Künstlerin Marina Abramović am Essen-Werdener Campus der Folkwang Universität der Künste statt. In einem Pressegespräch stellte Abramović die für das Akademische Jahr 2022/23 geplanten Workshop-Phasen vor. Anwesend waren die 27 Teilnehmer*innen des FIPL – internationale Studierende aller Folkwang Disziplinen Musik, Theater, Tanz, Gestaltung und Wissenschaft – sowie Wegbereiter*innen und Förder*innen der neuen Gastprofessur aus Politik und Kultur. Auf dem Podium sprachen neben Marina Abramović der Gründer und Vorsitzende der Pina Bausch Foundation Salomon Bausch und Folkwang Rektor Prof. Dr. Andreas Jacob.

read more
Foto: Marco Anelli © 2022

Marina Abramović
since winter semester 2022|23

At the start of the new professorship, it was possible to win the internationally renowned performance artist Marina Abramović as the first guest professor. In four work phases in 2022 and 2023, she will work with 27 selected Folkwang students from all fields of study - music, theater, dance, design and science. A public performance is planned for the summer of 2023.

Vita

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered
performance as a visual art form. She created some of the most important early works in this practice,
including Rhythm 0 (1974), in which she offered herself as an object of experimentation for the audience, as well as Rhythm 5 (1974), where she lay in the centre of a burning five-point star to the point of losing consciousness. These performances married concept with physicality, endurance with empathy, complicity with loss of control, passivity with danger. They pushed the boundaries of self-discovery, both of herself and her audience. They also marked her first engagements with time, stillness, energy, pain, and the resulting heightened consciousness generated by long durational performance.
In 2012, she founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art,
that focuses on performance, long durational works, and the use of the ‘Abramović Method’. MAI is a
platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among
thinkers of all fields.
Abramović was one of the first performance artists to become formally accepted by the institutional
museum world with major solo shows taking place throughout Europe and the US over a period of more
than 25 years. In 2023, Abramović will be the first female artist to host a major solo exhibition in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her first European retrospective ‘The Cleaner’ was presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017, followed by presentations at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark, Henie Onstad, Sanvika, Norway (2017), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2018), Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun (2019), and concluding at the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia (2019). In 2010, Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in “The Artist is Present” at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York.
In 1997, Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion Award for Best Artist for her performance Balkan Baroque at the Venice Biennale. In 2006, Abramović received the U.S. Art Critics Association Award for Best Exhibition of Time Based Art for her performance Seven Easy Pieces at the Guggenheim in New York City. In 2008, Abramović received the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art in Vienna. In 2011, she was awarded Honorary Royal Academician status by The Royal Academy in London. In 2013, Abramović was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Officer for her work in Bolero, Paris. In 2014, Abramović was named one of The 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine. In 2021, Abramović was awarded the Princess de Asturias Award for the Arts, in Spain.

The idea for the Pina Bausch Professorship was born of a decades-long connection and artistic co-operation between the Tanztheater Wuppertal, the Pina Bausch Foundation, the Folkwang University of the Arts and the future Pina Bausch Centre, which is currently in the process of being set up. The professorship’s interdisciplinary approach is reflected by the tradition and philosophy of the Folkwang University of the Arts, as well as the name of Pina Bausch, who played a key role in permanently shaping 20th-century dance and theatre culture and which continues to influence the arts, not least through its focus on the body, to this day. But the Pina Bausch Professorship is not about examining her work or who she was as a person; it instead allows artists from all disciplines to freely choose their own topics and tasks.

The Pina Bausch Professorship is made possible by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Ministry of Culture and Science. The first professorship receives an exceptional funding from the Kunststiftung NRW.