In the summer of 1927, the artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven sends a letter to the patron Peggy Guggenheim, seeking funding. In prophetic euphoria and apocalyptic urgency, she outlines a project: an experimental modelling studio in Paris, where her longstanding work as a figure model is to be presented as an art of its own. A century later, Spirit Plastic takes up this forgotten episode in the history of performance art to restage it as a space of resonance for contemporary dilemmas of artistic labour. Drawing on the Baroness’s late poetry and autofictional writings, the play explores the act of calling oneself an ‘artist’ in an economically, politically and spiritually precarious present.
,Bruch‘- is a collaborative framework for artistic research and production between theatre, dance and visual art. Since 2020, their work has been shown at venues such as Kölnischer Kunstverein, Münchner Kammerspiele, the National Experimental Theatre in Tirana, and Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
