PAN.OPTIKUM

PAN.OPTIKUM Action Theatre is a theatre ensemble based in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

History

The PAN.OPTIKUM group was founded in Berlin in 1982 by Nesa Gschwend and Frank Niemöller who were interested in putting on performances in public venues. The name PAN.OPTIKUM comes from the original Panoptikum from the 1920s, quite near the site of its birth, whose performances included exhibiting and exposing people without their consent. Right from the start PAN.OPTIKUM exhibited human sculptures and itself respectively at various festivals and galleries. In 1983, following a longer stay in Indonesia, Nesa Gschwend and Frank Niemöller completed their first large-scale installation at the City Hall Market in Hamburg. This installation also marked the beginning of Nesa Gschwend’s large wind figures, which were to be a trademark of PAN.OPTIKUM for a longer period of time. In 1986 Nesa Gschwend left the group and returned to Switzerland where she dedicated herself to her own solo performances and art projects.

In the 1960s and 1970s many free theatre groups positioned themselves as an antithesis to the prevailing city theatre culture, after which the beginning of the 80s witnessed a further wave of new theatre and street theatre in Europe. For example, the "La Fura dels Baus" group was founded in Spain, the "Royal de Luxe" ensemble in France, and "Dogtroep" in Amsterdam.

When Sigrun Fritsch and Ralf Buron joined the ensemble in 1988 and 1989 respectively, the group's focus shifted to performances in public venues. These performances used ideas from Bauhaus in Dessau from the 20s and were based on connecting architecture, i.e. installation, and the performing arts.

It was at this time that the first large-scale productions were created, e.g. on the subject of Max Ernst, which earned PAN.OPTIKUM an invitation to the WorldFest in Atlanta. The theatre group moved to Freiburg im Breisgau at the beginning of the 90s. It was there that productions such as Liebe und Tod (Love and Death), a performance of two baroque operas with the Freiburger Barockorchester, and Bach's Christmas Oratorium served as a basis for further concept development.

In 1999 the ensemble joined forces with "Nachtwerk" from Stuttgart, a group of pyrotechnicans led by Karl Rechtenbacher, and went on to create the street production of Prometheus during the Year of Goethe. Together with new ensemble member Matthias Rettner, productions for audiences of several thousand people were created and performed. With these productions the ensemble, now comprising close to 40 people, has been giving guest performances in Europe and South America since 2003 at major theatre festivals including the Sziget Festival in Budapest, the Glastonbury Festival in England, and the Tárrega Festival in Spain as well as in Caracas, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá, the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato and Guadalajara in México.

Productions

Awards

External links

Sources and references

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