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Workshops
Seminars
Teaching

deufert&plischke teach seminars and workshops for professional performers and amateurs, for specific communities and even in completely different areas such as city councils. As part of their projects, they have also worked in asylum seeker shelters, schools and old people's homes. From 2007 to 2009, they were involved in university teaching, initially as collaborators in the development of the «Performance Studies» programme at the University of Hamburg, and from 2010 as professors in the development, consolidation and accreditation of the BA programme «Dance, Context, Choreography» at the HZT / UdK Berlin. deufert&plischke have been guest professors at many universities (Folkwang University of the Arts, Institute for Contemporary Dance, Scenic Research Bochum) and have been guest professors/teachers at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, the Berlin University of the Arts, among others.

deufert&plischke teach their own artistic working process, which is based on strict collaboration.

Their choreographic work focuses on how complex and interesting structures arise without imitation and without the leading role of a choreographer/director, but through the permanent reference to each other. Their choreographic self-understanding is that choreography can be a temporary society and not just reflect it. Based on this understanding, they explore topics such as physicality, clothing and memory.

Three examples of formats are: Las Hilanderas, Durcheinander and Spinnen

Las Hilanderas
ifa Galerie Berlin 2019

«Las Hilanderas» grew out of the «Emergence Room»
installation (mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna (2010), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2012 / 13), Z33 Hasselt (2011) and was first installed as a participatory art installation and workshop space at ifa Galerie Berlin (2019). The idea is to install a deufert&plischke artwork in a museum or gallery space and then use the created environment to teach workshops alongside the exhibition. At the heart of Las Hilanderas is the myth of Arachne as it appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The myth is presented as the birth myth of political and feminist art, and forms a bridge to activities such as spinning, embroidery, image tracing, embroidery, knitting... All the resulting works enter the installation to create a large carpet/canvas of Arachne. All material is preserved in «memory time capsules», created by deufert&plischke after the exhibition/workshop.

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memory time capsule (2013)

Druch-Ein-Ander

«Durch-Ein-Ander» is based on several working methods that the artist couple deufert&plischke have developed in over 20 years of collaboration. Their aim is to apply methods of collaborative art practice in completely different fields of work in order to create new spaces of thought and possibility for the diverse urban society.

The focus is on not levelling out the differences brought by the participants (experiences, approaches, working environments) in the search for a consensus, but rather to understand these differences as an opportunity for each participant to develop completely new ways of thinking and working.

Representatives of the independent art scene and employees of the city administration of Wuppertal met in six workshops, which took place both in the rooms of the cultural office and in the spinnereischwelm. In the 5-hour sessions, the practice of «Durch-Ein-Ander (trough-one-another)» was tried out intensively together. The circular writing and exchange of ideas, thoughts, wishes and dreams resulted in 7 jointly written books, all of which contain a project for the city of Wuppertal as a space of opportunity for artistic development.

Durch-Ein-Ander
Kulturbüro der Stadt Wuppertal
2023

In April 2023, on the initiative of the Kulturbüro Wuppertal together with deufert&plischke, the first Durch-Ein-Ander was launched as a pilot project to launch the new PerformanceLAB series, which tests artistic practices in collaborative processes. A symposium and exchange meeting is planned for November 2024 to further explore the potential of this new format.

In German, «spinnen» has many meanings. Among other things, it refers to the art of making and pulling a thread, pursuing a thought, brooding, exaggerating something to such an extent that it appears incredible and strange. deufert&plischke took spinning as their theme to create a performance together with children from the Freie Schule Potsdam that moves between language and dance. The performers use their bodies and senses to tell stories, memories, thoughts and meanings about clothing as they wander around the room. A dance develops in the jumble of time, space and people, rather than alongside each other. Read an article about this workshop-performance format.