About:

Born in Tel Aviv where she studied and later worked as an actress. Moved to Europe 2004 to continue her studies and graduated with Diploma in Performance from DasArts Amsterdam. Since 2007 Stainberg is based in Vienna.

As an actress from the middle east, I know that truth is a questionable notion – ‘depending on who you ask’. Art and dialog are the only ways to sublimate that uncomfortable lack of certainty. 

Whether in the visual or performative arts, Stainberg’s work is created through a process of drilling and peeling from deeply embedded and layered accumulations of visual conventions and appropriated thoughts and behaviours. Attempting to identify and hold-on to a core starting point that represents a reality, a truth or authenticity and resulting mostly in abstract minimalistic paintings and poetic text-based performances. 

Crisscrossing between the visual and performative disciplines is Stainberg’s ‘modus vivendi’ ever since; it allows her to smuggle skills and knowledge from one area into the other, to insist on experimentation and the constant questioning of orthodox forms.

But more than anything else it saves me from conformity, stagnation and boredom.

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).

Stainberg is a part of the curatorial team of the monthly performance series ‘DerBloedeDritteMittwoch’, she collaborate locally and internationally as a performer, voice artist, teacher and coach and works regularly as a performer with ‘Toxic Dreams’ a Viennese experimental theatre company.

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.