Hellerau Festival Theatre, built in 1911 as a school of Rhythmics, is today the location of HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden.
Following an eventful history – in the 1930s it served as a military camp; later the Soviet army used it as their barracks – in the 1990s the site was brought back to life through art.
HELLERAU has since then become one of the most important interdisciplinary centers for contemporary arts in Germany. It is home to contemporary dance, musical theatre, contemporary classical music, theatre, performance art, the fine arts and new media, as well as a place for reflection on art and culture.
Along with its partner organizations the European Centre for the Arts has been working on creating an arts workspace in HELLERAU. This is a place where people experiment with art, test out art, present art.
In 2016 Stefanie Minzenmay won the residency prize of the first International PORTRAITS Hellerau Photography Award established in HELLERAU together with Kunstagentur Dresden. During her residency time in January 2017 she inspected the Hellerau festival theatre and its adjacent buildings together with her camera. She did this with a very certain and close look at the hidden characteristics of the theater, well knowing that such a cultural place requires an excellent logistic, a lot of technical equipment and at least remarkable manpower.
Whilst the outstanding architecture of the building has been documented many times, Stefanie captured the little, ordinary, probably usually unnoticed things of the theater. She explored the storage locations, locker rooms, lavatories and halls and also went up to the garret, sometimes being the one and only person in the building. The outcome of this is the very focused and pure series of pictures of this center of cultural life, simply named HELLERAU. It`s about the theater of the little things.
About Stefanie Minzenmay
Stefanie Minzenmay lives and works in Neuss, Germany.From 2011 to 2014 she attended classes at the School for artistic photography Düsseldorf, Germany and attended a variety of workshops at Lichtblick School, Cologne. Since 2013 she has participated in various group and solo exhibitions (e.g. “Essay trifft Märchen”, fiftyfifty Galerie, Düsseldorf (2013), anniversary Exhibition “Dirty Thirteen”, Galerie – Der Turm, Schwalmtal (2013), Publika Whitebox Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (2015), “Eye Contact” PhotoWerkBerlin (2015), “Fünf ist eine gerade Zahl” onomato Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, Portraits – Hellerau Photography Award, Dresden (2016), Troner Art Consulting, Photoweekend Düsseldorf (2017), “Protected Privacy”, Hellerau, Dresden, solo exhibition (2017) Studio Bronx, Neuss (2017), Kolga Tiblisi Photo Festival (2017). [Official Website]
