Performance

on the special exhibition “Käthe Kollwitz and the Theatre”

Taylor Swift on stage or Ronaldo’s “Siuuu” goal celebration are iconic performances – but what makes them so special? Theatrical gestures and facial expressions are central means of expression for actors, helping them to evoke emotions and tell stories on stage without words. Inspired by these forms of expression, Käthe Kollwitz also experimented with the dynamics of the human body and the expressiveness of faces in her graphic and sculptural work.

In the school project day “Performance”, such expressive postures are examined and experimented with in a model stage using the effects of light and space. The exhibition visit is designed as a performative method of viewing images. Based on the artist’s relationship to theatre, participants explore their own or found gestures and postures and experiment with them creatively. Together with the material provided, the collected postures form a motivic pool of human forms of expression for the stage experiments.

Finally, participants cut out, fold and glue their own small stage in the workshop. They examine its effect in the room using designed figure silhouettes. The finished stage can be taken home at the end of the workshop.