Gisèle Vienne is a Franco-Austrian artist, choreographer, and theatre and film director. From an early age, she was trained in visual arts by Dorothéa Vienne-Pollak, and later studied dance, music, philosophy, and puppeteering.

Over the past twenty years, her work has toured in Europe, Asia, and America, among others the productions Showroomdummies #1, #2, #3, #4 (2001 – 2020), I Apologize (2004), Kindertotenlieder (2007), Jerk (2008), This is how you will disappear (2010), LAST SPRING: A Prequel (2011), The Ventriloquists Convention (2015) in collaboration with Puppentheater Halle, Crowd (2017), L’Étang (2021), and EXTRA LIFE (2023).  In 2021, she directed the film Jerk.

Vienne has frequently exhibited her photographs and installations in museums, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. In 2024/2025 she presents two new exhibitions for the Contemporary Art Center Haus am Waldsee and the Georg Kolbe Museum inaugurated as part of Berlin Art Week 2024. 

She published her photography in the books JERK/Through Their Tears with Jonathan Capdevielle, Dennis Cooper,and Peter Rehberg (Paris: Dis Voir, 2011) and 40 PORTRAITS (2003–2008), in collaboration with Dennis Cooper and Pierre Dourthe (Paris: Éditions P.O.L., 2012). A new book of photographs, designed in collaboration with Estelle Hanania and Elsa Dorlin, is published by Spector Books in November 24. Her work has led to various publications and the original music of her shows to several albums.  

DACM develops and defends a project of an independent European company. Anchored in Strasbourg, in the Grand Est region, where the company maintains long-term relationships with the Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène Européenne; Filature, Scène Nationale de Mulhouse; Centre Culturel André Malraux, Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy ;  Manège, Scène Nationale de Reims & the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnette at Charleville-Mézières.

 

A border region par excellence, promoting bridges between France and Germany, this location has allowed DACM to forge strong links with places such as the Ruhrtriennale, an international Arts Festival deployed throughout the Ruhr region, or the Internationales Sommerfestival, Kampnagel in Hamburg which has presented all the pieces by Gisèle Vienne for ten years. The company has also performed with several of its pieces in Berlin (Volksbühne), Munich (Kammerspiele), Düsseldorf (Tanzhaus NRW), and Frankfurt (Künstlerhaus Mousonturm).

 

At national level, this cross-border anchoring is reinforced by DACM with various institutions: since 2017 with the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, in 2021 and 2022 with the Centre National de la Danse and since 2022 with the Théâtre National de Chaillot. From 2023, Gisèle Vienne will also be an associate artist at MC2 Grenoble and Le Volcan – Scène Nationale du Havre.

 

The company’s regional, national and international reach is based on a solid and loyal network of partners, which continues to expand with each new season. DACM produces Gisèle Vienne’s creations and presents new works as well as those in the repertoire (around 3 to 5 different productions are presented each year). In partnership with theaters and universities, the company develops mediation and training initiatives for a variety of audiences. DACM also supports Gisèle Vienne’s peripheral projects: exhibitions (photographs and puppets), book publications and audiovisual projects.

• Télérama
  La chorégraphe Gisèle Vienne : “Mon art participe d’un combat contre la violence sociale”
• Les Inrockuptibles
  Gisèle Vienne : 20 ans (de création), le bel âge