2023-10-10 17:46:00
To mark its 30th anniversary, the theater bodi end sole is dedicating an exhibition to the set designer Alois Ellmauer.
Is it a labyrinth or a journey through hell? Anyone who makes their way through the walk-in stage set on Hallein’s Perner Island is amazed at the winding paths and seemingly wrong paths. The sophisticated construction serves as a framework for the theater bodi end sole for the narrative of “Inanna & Ereshkigal”. Alois Ellmauer has no problem with this term: “The stage design must support and serve.”
The understatement suits an artist whose stage work always starts from the text. Alois Ellmauer has shaped the look and aesthetics of Salzburg’s independent theater scene over the last three decades like no other. It all started in 1989, as a set designer for the legendary Theater Yby. “Those were wild times,” Ellmauer remembers the founding years. The police once even stormed a performance in the Petersbrunnhof that had been banned by the authorities.
In the early 1990s, a theater group around Christa and Helfried Hassfurther was formed in Hallein. The bodi end sole theater quickly became known beyond the borders of the saltworks town. “I already knew Alois from the Yby productions,” says Christa Hassfurther. The two worked together for the first time in 2000 in “Tschikweibern”. Since then, the stage architect and the theater maker have undergone a creative process in which both are equally involved. “Christa is interested in unorthodox stage spaces,” says Ellmauer. What Christa Hassfurther appreciates regarding her set designer is “that he creates ideas that I can play with.”
To mark the 30th anniversary of bodi end sole, the Theater Alois Ellmauer is dedicating an exhibition. A memory machine opens for theatergoers on Perner Island. Photos and videos depict productions by Charly Rabanser, Reinhold Tritscher and Caroline Richards. The Bauhaus “Volpone” by bodi end sole from 2005 is unforgettable; the head of the giant Gulliver doll brings to mind a literally large production by the Theater ecce. Figurines point to Ellmauer’s skills as a costume designer, while works from Stuttgart and Ljubljana underline the Salzburger’s international reputation.
For Christa Hassfurther, the exhibition is an emotional highlight of the anniversary week; on Thursday she will hand over the theater to her successor, Dominik Jellen. “It’s the right time, there are the right people,” says the passionate theater maker, who was previously honored with the City of Hallein’s Culture Prize.
Exhibition: “The stage rooms of Alois Ellmauer”, Hallein, Pernerinsel, until October 12th.
1696960326
#Exhibition #Alois #Ellmauer #Stage #spaces #Salzburgs #theater #history
