Gisèle Vienne is a Franco-Austrian artist, choreographer and director. After graduating in Philosophy, she studied at the puppeteering school Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette. She works regularly with the writer Dennis Cooper, among others.

 

Over the past 20 years, her work has toured in Europe and has regularly been performed in Asia and in America. Touring shows include: 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’Etang (2021) & EXTRA LIFE (2023). In 2020, she created a fourth version of Showroomdummies at the Rohm Theater Kyoto with Etienne Bideau-Rey, originally created in 2001.

 

Her photography and installations have been exhibited at the New York Whitney Museum, the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. She has published two books: JERK / Through Their Tears with Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle in 2011; and 40 PORTRAITS 2003-2008, in collaboration with Dennis Cooper and Pierre Dourthe in 2012. Her work has led to various publications, and the original music of her shows to several albums.

 

In 2021, the Festival d’Automne à Paris dedicated a portrait to her, presenting two new creations, four pieces from the repertoire, a new exhibition and the film Jerk, directed by Gisèle Vienne the same year.

 

Her latest creation, EXTRA LIFE, was presented at the Ruhrtriennale in August 2023.

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