A director has plans for an ambitious film about the life of Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh. Both painters stood at the cradle of modern art and left their mark on the way that we think about beauty and artistry. They achieved immortality through their work, yet were vilified during their lifetimes. It was very difficult for these artists to find their place in society and both fell prey to despair. In turn, the film director ties himself in knots trying to create his masterpiece. Huge amounts of money are necessary, ideally from private investors. But what price will he ultimately have to pay?
Fascinated by the way an artist ‘breathes’ his surroundings, Ulrike Quade examines the parallels in the life and work of Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). They were contemporaries who were both equally shaped, and stifled, by their deeply religious surroundings. Using the biographies of these two important painters as a starting point, she explores the place of artists within society, and on the margins of it – both in the past, as well as today.
This performance was created to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch. The performance is an artistic collaboration with Jo Strømgren, with whom the successful performance The Writer was created in 2009, a work based on the life and work of the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.
In co-production with Jo Strømgren Kompani, Oslo (NO), the Nordland Visual Theatre, Stamsund (NO) and the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (DE).
