DUSSELDORF.- The Julia Stoschek Foundation will present Gaia’s Corner (2024), a new site specific work by Magdalena Mitterhofer and Shade Théret. The performance will take place by the water feature in front of the main entrance of K20 on Düsseldorf’s Grabbeplatz, accompanied by live music. Gaia’s Corner refers to the myth of the Greek goddess Gaia, the mother of all life, and to the question of how architectural spaces and urban structures influence our perception of nature and artificiality.
In their collaborations, Magdalena Mitterhofer and Shade Théret operate at the interface of theater, film, performance, and visual art. They often break the fourth wall by shifting the stage space into public areas, thus disrupting the illusion of theater. Their works have been shown at Tanzquartier Wien, Kunstverein München, Volksbühne Berlin, Longtang (Zurich), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), 3hd Festival (Berlin), M.I. glissé (Berlin), Centrale Fies (Trento, Italy), Festspiele am Plötzensee (Berlin), and FUTURA (Prague), among others. Since 2021, Théret and Mitterhofer have produced and curated Lament.tv, a site-specific and nomadic performance and video series in Berlin.
Gaia’s Corner is organized by Tabea Marschall as part of the exhibitions “Lynn Hershman Leeson: Are Our Eyes Targets?” and “Digital Diaries”, on view at JSF Düsseldorf, and is commissioned by the Julia Stoschek Foundation.
Shade Théret (b. 1994, Los Angeles) is a dancer, choreographer, and theater maker based in Berlin. She studied at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco and was a member of Sarah Elgart's dance company, Arrogant Elbow, from 2013 to 2015. In 2019, she graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts (HZT) with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, Context, and Choreography. Théret’s artistic practice focuses on deconstructing classical Western dance forms and translating them into movement based gestures that explore grotesque and intense human emotional states. She employs both improvisational and structured working methods to play with images of effort and exhaustion. Her works take shape through live performances, film, video, and poetry.
Magdalena Mitterhofer (b. 1994, South Tyrol) is a director and artist based in Berlin. Her practice is often collaborative and operates at the intersection of various artistic forms, including theater, film, and drawing. In her site-specific works, she explores the relationships between surrounding architectural and socio-political structures and the viewers. Magdalena holds a Meisterschüler diploma from the class of Hito Steyerl at the Berlin University of the Arts and studied New Media at Tama University in Tokyo. Her debut film Corte will premiere in 2024.
