About:
Born in Tel Aviv where she studied and worked as an actress. 2004 moved to Europe to continue her studies and graduated with a Diploma in Performance from DasArts Amsterdam. Since 2007 Stainberg lives in Vienna and works as performer, painter and curator.
Stainberg is a part of the curatorial team of the monthly performance series ‘DerBloedeDritteMittwoch’, and works regularly as a performer with ‘Toxic Dreams’ a Viennese experimental theatre company.
Anat Stainberg’s work is part of the Austrian Theater Museum collection (since 2008) and the visual art collection of the city of Vienna (since 2021).
Statement:
With a traditional foundation in the performative arts and a self-taught approach to painting, I am drawn to the intersections of these disciplines; I love to smuggle skills and insights from one discipline to the other, keeping me in a dynamic state of unknowing and wonder. In that sense I think of myself more as an undisciplined* than a multi-disciplined artist.
The starting point to each performance and visual-art work is the need to stop the constant life noise and hold-on to a temporary sensation of realness, demonstrated for example by the way my body feels while working.
I’m drawn to the playfulness of aesthetic composition, exploring the tension between details and the broad big picture. But my work is born from the friction between my strict controlled plans verses the surprises of the material, resulting mostly in abstract minimalistic paintings and poetic text-based performances.
The viewers are not an integral collaborator my the creative process, but only by sharing the work with an audience that it receives meaning, even if only short-termed and subjective. In essence, I think of my work as a validation of the symbiotic relationship between the creator, the creation, and the observer. And I’m driven by the urge to evoke a sense of inter-contentedness with and within the viewers. Hoping to awaken a collective sense of care to the human experience and the world around us.
* I refer to the term ‘undisciplined’ in the arts, the way it is coined by Irit Rogoff, a theoretician, curator and Professor of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. She advocates for art ‘as an undisciplined practice that takes place in a zone of dis-identification, which is immensely productive: it becomes a way of expanding knowledge and developing new ways of thinking and doing that stands against the agenda of the neoliberal cognitive capitalism and the marketing-oriented art world’.
Works :
2023 Curating and participating in the group show ‘Blöd und Undiszipliniert’ with DerBlödeDritteMittwoch, for the artfair Parallel Vienna.
2023 CHITTY CHITTY BRECHT BRECHT. Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Production of Toxic Dreams and WUK Wien.
2022 HAPPINESS Ltd. Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Production of Toxic Dreams and WUK Wien.
2022 Solo exhibition Anat Stainberg: an everlasting performance @ Echoraum Vienna. Exhibition dedicated to the painting series BODY FORMS 2018 – 2022. www.echoraum.at
2022 The Unreal Housewives of Vienna vs. The Unreal Housewives of Graz. Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Production of Toxic Dreams and Brut Wien.
2021 Group exhibition ENDSTATION OST @ Oststation am Kempelenpark, 1100 Wien
2021 THE ADVENTURE OF YOLI BALULU AND HIS GANG OF MISFITS. Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Production of Toxic Dreams and WUK Wien.
2021 Group exhibition @ Parallel 2021, Vienna. Curated by Art Care.
2021 THE ART OF ASKING YOUR BOSS FOR A RAISE. Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Production of Toxic Dreams and Brut Wien.
2021 After the End and Before the Beginning, a video installation at the theatre museum Vienna. Performing the role Olga from The three sisters, Chekhov. A Toxic Dreams production, Regie:Yosi Wanunu.
2020 WHAT IF: The making of a character. Live performance, painting and Video presentation. Hosted by Medienwerkstatt Wien. Supported by the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) and the culture department of the federal ministry of the republic of Austria (BMKÖS). WHAT IF is a part of ‘Family Affairs’, a series of events curated by Hanna Schimek.
2020 Group exhibition @ Parallel 2020, Vienna. Curated by Art Care.
2020 HIGHLIGHTS and HEADACHES, a cliffhanger opera by and with Franz Stuttgart. Story telling and soundscapes, a collaboration with Billy Roisz.
2019 – 20 Ordinary Creatures. Indie feature film. Performing the role: A woman in rage. Director Thomas Marschall.
2018 – 20 The Bruno Kreisky Lookalike. Episodes 1 – 10. Performing the role of a psychoanalyst Dr. Dora Hartmann. Regie: Yosi Wanunu. Nestroy Prize 2019. Production of Toxic Dreams and WUK Vienna.
2019 15ʹSTARDUST. Live Performance. A collaboration with light artist Martina Tritthart. Performed at Kubatur in Fluc, as part of ‘Reaching for the stars’. Curated by Philomena and Raw Matters, Vienna.
2019 Eh Rachel. Performing. Art-house short movie. Regie: Ana Hoffner.
2018 To The Limelight, a solo exhibition in the gallery Sternstudio Vienna. A decade of self-portraits in drawing, painting and video.
2017 The Role Player. Group exhibition and abstract storybook. Produced at the residency Hotel Pupik in Schratenberg Styria.
2016 Reigen (the making of a post porn Schnitzler). Performing. Regie: Yosi Wanunu and Haiko Pfost. A production of WERK X, Vienna.
2016 Thomas B or Not. Performing. Co-production of Toxic Dreams and brut Wien. Regie: Yosi Wanunu.
2016 Desert Bloom, performing ‘the voice’. A sound art piece by Peter Kutin and Florian Kindlinger. Produced for WDR3 Studio Acustic Arts and received the Karl-Szcuka Radio Art Award 2016.
2015 – 17 Self-Character-Act, a monologue performance. Writing and acting. Performed in Festival Legeartis am Lech, in SCHOOL and Im Ersten Gallery Vienna, at the Rihz, in brut Wien and at the WUK in Wien.
2015 On and beyond a Stage. Curating for the Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. With contribution of the artists Sööt/Zeyringer, Laia Fabre and SCHOOL.
2014 ESPECIALLY FOR THE OPENING, performance in a group exhibition. Created for the opening of the exhibition COPIE NON CONFORME, curated by Amina Handke, at the Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna.
2013 SPLITTER, an audio-visual concert performance. Writing development and performance. Collaboration with video artist and musician Billy Roisz. Co-production and presented at brut Wien. Supported by the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7).
2011 MESHES TO MESHES 2, soundtrack composition for Meshes of the afternoon, a silent short movie by Maya Deren 1940. A collaboration with Billy Roisz. Comissioned by Lisa Kortschak for brut Wien.
2010 THINGS, a site-specific exhibition for performances. Curating. With contributions from the artists Otobong Nkanga, Radek Hewelt and Hans Bryssinck. Co-production and presented at brut Wien. Supported by the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) and the culture department of the federal ministry of the republic of Austria (BMKÖS).
2009 Hide and Seek, a ‘private performance’ and sound environment. Part of the X Wohnungen performances. Production of brut Wien.
2008 THE LOOP, live performance and Video, a fiction documentary exploring the 1924 stage design of Frederick Kiesler. Co-produced and presented at brut Wien. Supported by the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7), Österreichisches Theatermuseum and Kiesler Stiftung.
2007 A Concert Performance, collaboration with the duo RASHIM performed at the ‘Wien Modern’ Vienna.
2007 The Way In, Video registration of intervention in public space. Exhibited and in Platform 21 Gallery Amsterdam. Created while an Residency at the Zuidas Virtual Museum (ZVM) Amsterdam. Received a prize from the cultural department of the city of Amsterdam.
2006 Now Or Never, an installation performance, collaboration with Norberto Llopis Segara. Exhibited and performed once a week in the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
2006 Holiday Pictures Project, an installation performance. Performed at Tanzquartier in Vienna (curated by Ong Keng Sen), Schaumburg Utrecht, in brut Wien and in theater Nestroyhof Hamakom.
2005 Untitled Yet, a multi media self-portrait. Performed in De Apple Gallery in Amsterdam, the Frascati theater Amsterdam at the Filmhuise Den Haag and in brut Wien.
2005 Best of, collaboration with the choreographer Alexandra Bachtzesis. Performed in the SMAK Gent, at the MARTAH, Herfurd Germany and at the KUNST-PALAST Düsseldorf.
2004 Exactly a week since we spoke last. Fiction documentary video. Writing developing and acting. Broadcast in the VPROchannel in the Dutch TV, participated in the Italian film festival UNIMOVIE, in the Bangkok festival Videoexperimental 08 and in the Kunstfestivaal Scheltma NL.
1999 – 2004 Participated in Israeli TV and theatre productions. Amongst others: the TV series ‘Eight minutes a day’, written and directed by Uzi Weil, and in the Dusseldorf Schaushpielhaus production, ‘You are also very attractive when you are dead’ written by Arnon Grunberg.
Grants / Awards / Stipends :
2024 Receiver of a year ‘Arbeitsstipendium Performance’ from the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7).
2020 Received a grant from the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) and the culture department of the federal ministry of the republic of Austria (BMKÖS) for the production of the performance WHAT IF: the making of a character.
2013 Received a grant from the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) for the production of the performance SPLITTER, Co-production of brut Wien.
2010 Received a grant from the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) and the culture department of the federal ministry of the republic of Austria (BMKÖS) for the production of THINGS, a site-specific exhibition for performances, a co-production of brut Wien.
2008 Received a grant from the cultural department of the city of Vienna (MA7) for the production of the performance and Video THE LOOP, co-produced by brut Wien.
2007 Winner of a prize from the cultural department of the city of Amsterdam for the performance and video The Way In, created while a residency at the Zuidas Virtual Museum (ZVM) Amsterdam.
2004 – 6 Received a full education and living stipend from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands for participating in DasArts, Amsterdam.
Education :
2004 – 6 Graduated with Diploma from DasArts Amsterdam, a postgraduate institution for advanced research and studies in Performance.
1995 – 8 Graduated from The Performing Arts Studio, Studioact, in Tel Aviv. Founding director Yoram Loewenstein.
1992 – 4 Tel Aviv University– BA program studies in Film Theatre, and Anthropology of Africa.
Teaching :
2022 Seminar for the Phd professors and candidates at the Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU Wien).
2021 Online seminar: ‘Pitching for film makers in east Africa’. Commissioned by the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
2020 Seminar at the interdisciplinary summer school of the gender research department in the university of Vienna.
2019 Teaching at Forum Alpbach, Alpbach Austria.
2015 Teaching at Impulstanz festival, Vienna and SEAD, Salzburg.
2013 – 15 Teaching at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, at the performance class.