54 Hours Performances

From June 30, the Museum Folkwang presents 54 Hours Performances with students of the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Curated by Marina Abramović and Billy Zhao.

International students from all disciplines at the Folkwang University of the Arts have been working with Pina Bausch visiting Professor Marina Abramović since the winter semester 2022/23. As part of the class, they have developed long durational performances. The results will be presented publicly for the first time at Museum Folkwang.

For 6 hours and 9 days at Museum Folkwang starting from June 30, the students will be presenting their performances, that expand on long durational work through an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach. The 24 students that will be performing, include visual artists, singers, dancers, photographers, actors, musicians, directors and composers, between ages 17 and 42. Each work was conceived through the transformation of personal narratives into performative actions and environments that weave together a collective portrait of stories, memories, fears, desires, and realities. 

The students from the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Labs are: Eleonora Arnold, Gloria Carobini, Leon Maximilian Focker, Klara Günther, Camillo Guthmann, Anna Veronika Hargitai, Pau Holtkamp, Smila Vita Hoppe, Jakob Jentgens, Moonjoo Kim, Sophie Kockler, Goa-Louisa Kollewijn, Florian Kreßer, Frederico Mendes Teixeira, Francesco Marzano, Julian Mattlinger, Anaïs-Manon Mazic, Gaia Pellegrini, Konstantin Pütz, Marija Radovanović, Janina Schweitzer, Aleksandar Timotić, Luke Venatier and Anton Vichrov.

“For my one year of teaching at Folkwang University, my task was very clear. I wanted to work with students from all the different disciplines of the university to develop long durational performances. It was important for me that the students take their developed concepts and learn to work within a museum structure in order to support their artistic careers, in real life and with real public,” said Marina Abramović.

Prof. Peter Gorschlüter, director of the Museum Folkwang: “With Marina Abramović and the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab from the Folkwang University of the Arts we are sending a clear signal with regards to the interdisciplinary nature of the Museum Folkwang and further pursuing our performance and dance programme, which, in recent years, has seen exhibitions including 12 Rooms, Global Groove and William Forsythe. We look forward to this also intensifying the collaboration between the Folkwang University of the Arts and the Museum Folkwang.”

The Pina Bausch Professorship is made possible by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The first professorship receives special funding from the Kunststiftung NRW. It is named after the world-famous Folkwang alumna Pina Bausch and has been established in collaboration with the Pina Bausch Foundation as a guest professorship for the academic year 2022/23 at the Folkwang University of the Arts. LEAP Contemporary Art Fund and the Folkwang-Museumsverein e. V. support the realisation of the performance at Museum Folkwang.

Free time slot tickets at museum-folkwang.de/de/tickets. 

Limited access.