PRESENTATION: Anna Viebrock-Heute Demnächst Ende
Anna Viebrock studied stage design at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Her collaboration with Christoph Marthaler has led her to work with numerous theaters and operas such as the Theater Basel, the Volksbühne Berlin, the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Frankfurt Opera, the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the festivals Salzburg and Bayreuth, the Wiener Festwochen, the Festival d’Avignon and the Schauspielhaus Zürich, with whom she collaborated until the summer of 2004.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Thomas Schütte Foundation Archive
In her stage sets, Anna Viebrock’s keen interest in public space is apparent. Her waiting rooms, foyers, refuges, courtyards, multipurpose halls and offices lead us away from the private intimacy of a peep box giving dramatic plays – about love and dependency, for example – a suprapersonal arena where the emphasis can be placed on social dimensions. Sometimes, she even spatially transcends the interface dividing the public auditorium from the stage, the socalled Portal, that is the intermediary between reality and fiction, life and theatre. This is part of the stringent frame of the stage as a space grounded on the principle of control, to be seen from one side only, never naturally lit, with perfect acoustics, and surveilled by hundreds of spectators. Anna Viebrock draws attention to this traditional state in many of her stage sets, which subtly reveal how they have been fabricated and designed. For in spite of what often seems to be astounding illusionism at first sight, by which the artist not only presents the space itself and its functions, but also its own history, this apparent authenticity is disrupted by details that are slightly out of place, by incongruences of scale, improbabilities and absurdities. On occasion – as most recently at the Volksbühne, Berlin – Viebrock makes use of the revolving stage of the theatre to present the rear view of her architectural set, making visible its construction, including the handson work involved, while at the same time, the yellow brick façade at the front, for example, manifests itself as a superimposition. Anna Viebrock’s solo exhibition “HEUTE DEMNÄCHST ENDE” is cause for surprise. Her art is mainly at home in the theatre. Now she is creating an installation at the Skulpturenhalle, in which parts of a stage set and her models play a central role. Since studying at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in the 1970s, Anna Viebrock has developed her own distinctive way of intertwining space, architecture and sculpture, for which she has received much acclaim in the world of the theatre. Now, for the first time, her approach can be appreciated in a solo art exhibition. Viebrock’s unique stage sets are invented spaces that bear a striking resemblance to those in our real world, but go on to unfold enormous power within the enclosed cosmos of the theatre, on account of vestiges of the past, mild distortions or shifted proportions. She has developed the installation at the Skulpturenhalle by drawing on the stage set for GIUDITTA, an operetta premiered in Munich in 2021. Originally, the artist designed this set for the music theatre “44 HARMONIES FROM APARTEMENT HOUSE 1776” (Zurich, 2018). Both pieces were directed by Christoph Marthaler, with whom Viebrock has collaborated for many decades, thereby radically refreshing the theatre. The set included a large tiered space made up of turquoise wood-panelled walls and windows, along with a small stage that served as a square in a southern European city, an entertainment venue or a hotel bar. The small annex made of plywood was initially Giuditta’s wardrobe, while in “44 HARMONIES” it became a chapel. In the Skulpturenhalle, Viebrock transforms this stage set into an installation, which, in the absence of a theatrical context, offers visitors new views and pathways. The model for the “GIUDITTA” stage set is also on display within the installation, along with some 30 other theatrical set models from the years 1986 to 2001.
Photo: Anna Viebrock, Heute Demnächst Ende, Installation view Skulpturenhalle, 2024 , Photo: © Anna Viebrock, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Schütte Foundation
Info: Info: Thomas Schütte Foundation, Lindenweg, Junction Berger Weg, (Near Raketenstation), 41472 Neuss/Holzheim, Germany, Duration: 30/8/2024- 30/4/2025, Days & Hours: Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, https://thomas-schuette-stiftung.de/
