Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Bernhard Mikeska
2023-2024
Home institution
RAUM+ZEIT, DE
Country of origin (home institution)
Germany
Discipline(s)
Arts and arts studies
Theme(s)
Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Bernhard Mikeska is theatre director and artistic director of the company RAUM+ZEIT. After having obtained his PhD on complex systems in Heidelberg and Hamburg, he moved on from the science of theoretical physics to practice based research on and with theatre and the performing arts. He has been developing and publishing analogue immersive, hybrid digital virtual reality (VR) installations for more than fifteen years. Situated at the crossroads between artistic research, visual and performing arts, his works question the idea of a consistent space-time continuum and challenge people’s habitual expectations as well as accustomed ways of perceiving.
Bernhard’s hybrid installation ANTIGONE :: COMEBACK – A rehearsal with Helene Weigel and Brecht (Theater Chur, Switzerland) was invited to the Swiss Theatertreffen 2019. His VR/live-installation BERLAU :: KÖNIGREICH DER GEISTER (Berliner Ensemble) about Brechts co-writer and lover Ruth Berlau was awarded the Friedrich-Luft-Prize 2022 for the best Berlin production of the year.
Research Project
Being Thomas Mann
In his fellowship project, Bernhard is exploring new digital forms and techniques in view of the Thomas Mann anniversary years 2024/25. Historical places such as the dining hall of the Davos ZAUBERBERG sanatorium from 1912 are to be reconstructed virtually and Thomas Mann himself brought back to life in virtual reality (VR). VR is excellently suited to make it possible to experience the resonance between Thomas Mann’s life and work in the superposition and projection of narrated and experienced stories, of fiction and apparent (stage) reality.
Research Interests:
digital forms; techniques; virtual reality; literature; theatre