Melanie Mohren

Melanie Mohren (*1979 in Bonn) and Bernhard Herbordt (*1978 in Wurzburg) graduated with distinction from the renowned Institute of Applied Theatre Sciences at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen in 2005 and are working together on collaborative interdisciplinary projects since 2000. Their space and audio installations, radio plays, performances, music theatre productions and exhibition projects have been produced and presented at various international venues, theatres, galleries and festivals.

Currently Herbordt/ Mohren are developing their new work between theatre, exhibition and conference Alles was ich habe, a long-term research and archive project, that is dedicated in varying performative and discoursive formats to the investigation and of possible future societies. As a first edition, the staged exhibition Alles was ich habe #1 was opened in June 2010 at Sophiensaele Berlin. Another version of Alles was ich habe will be presented during a performance series initiated by the Akademie Schloss Solitude at Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart in September.

Last projects: the music theatre Von Mücken, Elefanten und der Macht in den Händen (Oper Bonn, Kampnagel Hamburg, 2008), the theatre installation Wie man ein Loch in den Himmel macht (Sophiensaele Berlin, 2008), the interdisciplinary group exhibition project and 52 hours laboratory promise, practice, protocol – performing future presences (Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2009), the radio play Babels Bau (DeutschlandRadio Kultur, 2009) and the music theatre Galaxy Hotel [play for music] (Kampnagel Hamburg, Festival Ultraschall, Sophiensaele Berlin, 2009/2010).

Herbordt/ Mohren received the NRW Radio Play Prize for their radio play Looking for a Small Story in 2001; 2004 both were artist in residents at PACT Zollverein in Essen and at Schwankhalle Bremen; in 2005 again at PACT Zollverein. Herbordt/ Mohren have repeatedly been recipients of radio play grants from the NRW Film Foundation (City Levels 2004, Niemandsland 2006, Babels Bau 2008). They were nominated as best young artists in the TheaterHeute yearbook in 2006 with for sale (untitled) at Schauspiel Stuttgart. In 2008 they received the emerging artist prize of Beethovenstiftung Bonn as well as the prize by the International Theatre Institute Germany MusicTheaterNow for their production Von Mücken, Elefanten und der Macht in den Händen. In April 2010 both received a stipend of the Goethe Institute Munich for Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina to research for their long-term project Alles was ich habe. In fall / winter 2010 they will receive a fellowship of New Media Center_kuda.org in Novi Sad.