Rainer Werner Fassbinder THEATER – Exhibition in Munich
From May 25 to September 9 in the German Theater Museum
In collaboration with the Fassbinder foundation the Munich Theater Museum is marking the thirtieth year since Fassbinder’s death with an extensive exhibition devoted to RWF’s work as a dramatist. The exhibition, which provides the first comprehensive presentation of RWF’s dramatic oeuvre, has been conceived and organized by director Claudia Blank and curator Petra Kraus with scholarly consultation provided by David Barnett. The RWFF has provided extensive curatorial support in the person of Daniel Kletke. The exhibition includes previously unpublished photographic material and reproductions of original documents and covers all phases in RWF’s theatrical career: from the first two plays he produced in 1965/66, Water Drops on Burning Rocks and Only a Slice of Bread, and his formative Munich phase from 1967-1971 as an actor and director with the Action-Theater and antitheater to his commissioned productions at Bremen’s Stadttheater and Bochum’s Schauspielhaus and his period as artistic director in 1974/75 with the Theater am Turm (TAT) in Frankfurt am Main. The structure of the exhibition reflects Fassbinder’s path from experimental and anarchistic “cellar theaters” via the established but also innovative city theaters to a democratic “collaborative theater.” Particular emphasis is given to this latter turbulent period when Fassbinder was artistic director of the TAT, a period which was marked more than others by the attempt to work with a collaborative ensemble and which climaxed with his production of Garbage, the City and Death being cancelled due to a public outcry.
Along with posters, playbills and programs, the exhibition also includes excerpts from the directorial and rehearsal process as well as television broadcasts. The exhibition design is predominately the work of the Munich agency Klekam’s Michael Lingg, an experienced practitioner in the field of visual communication. The sound specialists from Berlin’s Klangkosmonauten have digitalized and restored Fassbinder interviews (with Corinna Brocher) about his beginnings in the theater, and excerpts are available for visitors to listen to. Henschel Verlag has already produced a catalog entitled “Theater als Provokation” (2012, with a foreword by Hanna Schygulla), which draws on the book published by David Barnett in 2005 entitled “Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the German Theatre” (Cambridge University Press).
For more information:
German Theater Museum Munich
Galeriestrasse 4a (Hofgartenarkaden)
80539 Munich
Tel. 089 210691-28
info@deutschestheatermuseum.de