Karin Schäfer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karin Schäfer with picasso-style figure
Karin Schäfer with picasso-style figure
Karin Schäfer during a rehearsal with her team, when producing "Pictures at an Exhibition".
Karin Schäfer during a rehearsal with her team, when producing "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Karin Schäfer * September 21, 1963 in Mödling, Austria, is a performance artist[1] and the head of Karin Schäfer Figuren Theater - Visual Theatre Productions company. After studying puppetry arts with internationally renwoned Harry V. Tozer at Instituto del Teatro, (Barcelona) and working in Spain for several years, she returned back to Austria in 1993.

Based on the classical techniques of puppetry, the artist developed a special art form she calls "Visual Theatre", integrating visual arts, fine arts, music, dance and new media rather than classical puppetry. She cooperates with renowned artists from many genres, focusing on visual impact and abstaining from words in order to appeal her audience from different countries, cultures and ages.

She lives now in Neusiedl am See (Burgenland) with comrade and manager Peter Hauptmann.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Karin Schäfer grew up in Vienna and Neusiedl am See. She went to Spain in 1987 to study puppetry arts with Harry V. Tozer[2] at Instituto del Teatro, Barcelona.[3]

  • 1989 founded puppet theatre Per Poc together with Santi Arnal. The first self-designed production was "Piccolo Forte Pianissimo". They toured Spain, France, Germany and Belgium until 1993.
  • 1991-1993, she collaborated with renowned spanish puppeteer Jordi Bertran; they created "Poemas Visuales" in 1992 and toured France and Spain.
  • 1993 Back at Vienna, she created and directed the expressionist dance performance "Über das Marionettentheater" (On Marionette Theatre) after an essay by Heinrich von Kleist which had a run of 6 weeks in Vienna and was subsequently invited to renowned international festivals in Austria, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and to the International Festival of Experimental Theatre in Kairo [4].
  • 1993-1994 Cooperation with Schneck + Co theatre for children. She designed and built the marionettes for "Post für den Tiger",[5] toured Austria and presented the show on ORF.
  • 1994 "Poemas Visuales" earns prize of the jury of Cannes International Theater Festival.
  • 1997 She premieres "Stringtime" at dietheater, Konzerthaus, Vienna which is presented between 1997 and 2007 at international festivals all over the world (Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Cuba, Pakistan and Mexico).
  • 1997 Co-production with Kabinetttheater "Wir drei die zwei einzigen" on a text by Max Gad. Premiere at the Vienna Künstlerhaus.
  • 1999 "Stringtime" wins 1st prize at the First International Festival for Solo Puppeteers, Lodz, Poland.
  • 2000 Opens Kleist-Festspiele at Frankfurt (Oder) with new show for adults Twice upon a time which was (and is), up to now invited to international festivals in 15 countries on four continents.
  • 2001 Presents "Peter and the Wolf" at the Konzerthaus, Vienna together with Per Poc (Barcelona) and the Wiener Kammerphilharmonie (Vienna Chamber Orchestra), directed by Claudius Traunfellner.
  • 2002 Premieres "home@anywhere" a show for adolescents about the live of young people in Pakistan, based on her experiences and interviews made in two journeys to Lahore, Pakistan, and the Thar Desert at the border between Pakistan and India.
  • 2003 Conception and artistic direction of "PannOpticum", International Festival of Visual Theatre in Neusiedl am See which is biannual (2005, 2007, 2009)
  • 2004 Production "Da ist der Wurm drin" based on the famous painting [[Children's Games (Breughel)|Children's Games] by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
  • 2006 Co-production for ISAF World Sailing Games on lake Neusiedl; Wind und weiter (Wind and beyond), a nonverbal multimedia theatrical performance for the multinational visitors.

Karin Schäfer up to now performed in 28 countries on four continents, which were, by chronological order: Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Andorra, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia/Montenegro, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Egypt, Korea, Pakistan, Kenia, Mexico, Cuba, Luxembourg, Switzerland (and, of course, in Austria, too).

Future projects
  • Due to Joseph Haydn year (bicentannual of his death) cooperations with partners from London, Paris, Barcelona, Rom and Istanbul.
  • Production Cupid and Psyche on music by Haydn (cooperating with Haydnfestspiele Eisenstadt).
  • Tour in China with Pictures at an Exhibition.
  • 2010 International tour with "Rock.ok.o – ein Schau!Theater unter Röcken" on biography and works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

[edit] Awards

She won 1st prize at the International Festival of Solo-Puppeteers (at Łódź, Poland) in 1999, and was awarded Best Performer of same festival in 2003. Together with Santi Arnal and Jordi Bertran she won the prize of the jury of Cannes International Theater Festival in 1994. In 2003 her performance Stringtime was awarded "best foreign performance of the year" at the International Theatre Festival in La Havana, Cuba.

Gallery 'Paloma portraying two girls'

Note: This series was taken during Vienna's annual street festival "Stadtfest", where the artist, in tune with that festival, showed her skills as a puppeteer. This however does not at all reflect her actual work (see biography).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Burgenländische Landesregierung, Künstlerdatenbank (Database of the Burgenland Government, in German)
  2. ^ JSTOR, Daniel S. Keller, Historical Notes on Spanish Puppetry.
  3. ^ Institut del Teatre (Spanish)
  4. ^ http://www.cdf-eg.org/Arabic/exp_theater/index.html|Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre
  5. ^ English: "A Letter for Tiger", a children's book by Janosch, ISBN 978-3-407-76046-3 (translated from German by Anthea Bell)

[edit] See also:

[edit] External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: