wilhelmgroener.net

WILHELM GROENER has invited six artists from different disciplines to share a mutual working process, integrating artistic diversity and physical difference into the project. From distinguishing concepts and approaches, practices and bodies, a performative polyphony has emanated. It sets forth acts of togetherness, conducted by precise listening and attentive beholding. Imparting marks both sharing and separation, each distinction forms as well a movement towards the other.

Restless Oblivions. On the roll of the deep sleep. Dream of a smashed window.
The wolf at dawn crossed my mind.
Pain in the neck but not in the arse.
Entries and exits.
Adapt. Find your way through the labyrinth.
Anus is a gate to the underworld.
Snow White and Red Riding Hood.
Shrunken Penis and a pocket full of gold.
A day bird or a night bird. Night Owl. Early Bird.
Bats and symmetrical animals.
A cat with a flower for a face.
Ceiling of my head. Curtain of my breath.
Inner space Age.
Pinned down star figure on a flying cross.
Body interrupts the interrupted timelessness.
Is there anything not soft, uuurgh, like being amorphous chorus line.
Embarrassing dance.
Lions maid. Dandy lion.
Stars, a few crosses, smelly feet, burning sun.
Lovely animal nature.
King of the wood, if he could.
Shapes before the eyes, eyesore, eyesee.
B. C., rehearsal notes

The artist Mariola Groener and dancer/choreographer Günther Wilhelm have blended their names and arts since 2001 into their alter ego WILHELM GROENER. With a predilection for the odd and absurd, their work uses elements of performance, dance and installation. This spring they looked back at their works of the last decade and presented seven pieces of their opus during a retrospective called WILHELM GROENER – born on 1st of May, 2001″ at the UFERSTUDIOS.

Ulrike Bodammer (Berlin, Germany) graduated in 2002 from L’Ecole Supérieur des Arts du Cirque in Brussels – specialized in partner acrobatics. She is a teacher for Power Vinyasa Flow yoga and Kundalini yoga as well as a Reiki master after Dr. Usui. She worked with the Belgian nouveau cirque company ‚Feria Musika’. 2003 she started dancing in several productions from Jess Curtis/Gravity (Berlin/San Francisco) and choreographed her own work. Since 2006 she is dancing and setting the work of Tino Sehgal. 2010 She created the installation work “Gimme Shelter” together with her partner Frank Willens and their son Elijas.

Ben Cottrell is a Berlin-based British artist who studied at the Cheltenham College of Art. Cottrell works with a diverse range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture and site-specific installation. He exhibits internationally. Exhibitions including “Nova” in Ten Haaf Projects/Amsterdam, “Under the Sun” in Galerie Ben Kaufmann/Berlin, “Revelation” in Sariev Gallery/Plovdiv and “Solar Plexus” in Galerie Warhus Rittershaus/Köln. Cottrell is co-founder of the project and exhibition space ‚forever and a day Büro’ and has participated in numerous productions and performances, e.g. in “Paravent privé” (2005) by WILHELM GROENER.

Mariola Groener, born in Zabrze (Poland), grew up in Munich. She studied photography and video at HdK Berlin and UGH-Essen. She was awarded the photography-competition “Das große stille Bild”. In addition to her position as co-director of WILHELM GROENER, she is an artist exhibiting her works at home and abroad, recently “Revelation” in Sariev Gallery/Plovdiv in Bulgaria. She is also cofounder of the project and exhibition space ‚forever and a day Büro’ (www.foreverandadaybuero.net).

Ulrich Huhn studied Modern Dance at the Rotterdamse Dansacademie in the Netherlands. Afterwards, he performed as a dancer in various dance and opera productions in Amsterdam. He was an ensemble member of VA Wölfl’s Neuer Tanz in Düsseldorf. In Berlin he performs amongst others with Rheinhild Hoffmann, Hanna Hegenscheidt and WILHELM GROENER. He is currently studying Communication in Social and Economic Contexts at the Berlin University of the Arts and is also a member of the artists’ pool for ‚TanzZeit – Zeit für Tanz in Schulen’.

From Italian TV dance productions to release-based and post-modern dance techniques, from contact improvisation to literature studies and theoretical engagement, Maria F. Scaroni is moving through the complex network of learning and making dances since 1996. Scaroni’s works focus on the process of collaboration, play with durational experiences and are featured by a crossbreeding between performance, choreography and installation. She is part of the artistic network AADK in Berlin. www.aadk.org

Peter Stamer works as free-lance director, dramaturg, curator, and performer. A.o., he has been collaborating with choreographer Philipp Gehmacher, director Claudia Bosse, and performer Daniel Aschwanden with whom he developed diverse performative formats such as the documentary theatre installation “The Path of Money”. In 2008 and 2010, Peter curated the festival Tanznacht Berlin, in 2011 he conceived the NU Performance Festival for Tallinn2011 (with Silke Bake). He is currently working on a new theatreproject “For Your Eyes Only” and a piece in collaboration with toxic dreams on John F. Kennedy will premiere in spring 2012.

Günther Wilhelm, born in Munich, studied Butoh, classical and moder dance in Munich and Berlin. He was a long time member of VA Wölfl’s NEUER TANZ and worked a.o. with Dump Type and Anna Huber. He received the scholarship of Stiftung Kulturfonds and the Berlin dance and choreograpy scholarship.

Frank Willens has been dancing for almost half his life. He’s not feeding the hungry. He’s not building orphanages. He doesn’t sit on a mountaintop and meditate for world peace. He doesn’t crawl thousands of miles to some holy site to repent for his sins and catch a glimpse of the face of God. He doesn’t even volunteer at the local senior center. Usually he doesn’t buy the homeless newspaper from the half-drunk dude on the u-bahn, and when he does, he rarely reads it. He dances and tries to live a meaningful life within this context. This is his offering.

Silke Bake works as dramaturg and curator, a.o. with Jana Unmüßig, Anne Juren and Milli Bitterli. Together with curator André Lepecki she was responsible for two editions of the festival IN TRANSIT (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2008/2009). She conceived the NU Performance Festival for Tallinn2011 (together with Peter Stamer). In Berlin, she is currrently preparing (together with Reinhild Hoffmann, Kattrin Deufert and Thomas Plischke) the Cage-project “Song Books als Spielanleitung” at the Academy of the Arts. She collaborates with Bettina Knaup on the Performance Platform. Affective Bodies for Sophiensäle in 2012.

Bruno Pocheron, living in Berlin, has studied fine arts in France. He works as technical director, light- and sounddesigner as well as performer, among others with Christine de Smedt, Alix Eynaudi, Anne Juren. Together with Isabelle Schad and Ben Anderson, he founded the collaborative framework Good Works. He is also co-founder of the collective working place Wiesen55 and of the collective network Gangplank.

TiTo, is now living in Berlin. Extensive studies on a parkbench involved also in theatreplays and music. Deconstruction reconstruction sysyphonies. Played with the Frog Sandwich, Maostar, Moonkymoon, Alboth!..Lixoluxo…. guitar , saxophones , drums , electronics… Shows in Europe, Enronia, Japan.