Gintersdorfer & Klaßen

Monika Gintersdorfer / Knut Klaßen have been developing projects since 2005. The performers’ survival strategies and personal forms of expression are always central to their pieces and are juxtaposed with the choreographers’ own strategies and aesthetics. The team is German-Ivorian and frequently works with international guest artists. Their aim is not to present fantasies or symbolic meanings, but to achieve a direct transfer between life and theatre/performance.

Free Speech 2016 “We keep it technically simple – so we can get the last train before the show. We fight for the highest fees for our performers, because in Germany independent productions are often treated like poor productions. We try to be glamorous, to overcome feelings of poverty. There is neither a perfect length nor a perfect dramaturgy for our pieces. We produce things quickly and invite other artists to participate directly (self-curating). We aim to be conscious of the contexts in which we are working and to change them as often as possible. We don’t expect our pieces to last for a long time. Instead we work in series that just keep going. The performers should know how to use our pieces for their own gain. The clothes they wear on stage, for example, are their own. There is nothing symbolic, parodistic or illusionistic about our work, but we also do not always tell the truth.”

Website: www.gintersdorferklassen.org