Thea Reifler and Philipp Bergmann have been working together as artists, directors and curators in the fields of opera, visual arts, film, music theatre and performance since 2013, most recently in Berlin. Their process-based works and interdisciplinary projects are inspired by queer-feminist theory and practice and have been shown at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart (Berlin), 3HD-Festival - Kunsthaus Bethanien, Berghain, Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), NOWY Teatr (Warsaw), Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Hellerau - European Centre for Arts (Dresden), SPIELART-Festival (Munich), Opera Darmstadt, Bavarian State Opera (Munich), Sophiensæle (Berlin) et.al.
From 2020-2025 Thea Reifler and Philipp Bergmann will be the artistic directors of Shedhalle Zurich. With their concept PROTOZONES 2020-2025 they want to establish Shedhalle as an institution for process-based art.
Thea Reifler, born in St. Gallen, studied dance- and theatre studies as well as art history in Berne and M.A. Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen (D). In Berne she* co-founded the performance collective "das schaubüro" and the Social Space Agency, with projects at Schlachthaus Theater, Grosse Halle Reitschule, Kunstmuseum Berne and AUAWIRLEBEN, Gessnerallee Zurich and Frankfurt Book Fair, among others. Since then, she* has been researching with Pekko Koskinen (now part of the Economic Space Agency/House of Statistics Berlin) on a regular basis, at Reality Research Center Helsinki and Santarcangelo Residency, among others.
Philipp Bergmann, born in Frankfurt am Main, studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and as a guest at Städelschule Frankfurt. He presented works at Museum für Moderne Kunst and Museum Giersch in Frankfurt, was part of the project group of the Institute for Sound Research at HfG-Offenbach and won the Newcomer Award of B3-Biennale with his work "Breaking News". Since 2019 he has been working on the research project "Flüchtiges Sammeln. Prerequisites and possibilities of including Performance in Art Collections" at HSLU Lucerne.
Portrait Picture by Rasmus Bell
Nightshot Series - Pictures: Johanna Wagner