Melanie Mohren

Melanie Mohren and Bernhard Herbordt are graduates of Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen/Germany, and have been collaborating on interdisciplinary works at the interface of the performing arts since 2000. Their spatial and sound installations, audio pieces, performances, (music) theatre works and exhibition and publication projects are based on extensive research, produced internationally and have received numerous awards. Herbordt/Mohren conceive, curate and stage discursive format series as well as congresses and have been lecturing regularly at art colleges and universities in German-speaking countries and beyond for over a decade.

In 2012, Herbordt/Mohren founded »Die Institution« in Stuttgart. A wide-ranging art facility, »Die Institution« pursues an expanded concept of theatre relating to institutions and their realization, which is imagined in different formats and media. So far, thirteen independent and internationally acclaimed productions have emerged from the work series, with three publications released by the publisher Alexander Verlag Berlin: Vorgestellte Institutions / Performing Institutions (2015), Das Theater (2016) and Die Institution (2017). In 2021, Herbordt/Mohren opened the first ever »Display Repository for the Performing Arts« (»Schaudepot für die Darstellenden Künste«) in Stuttgart.

The duo are founding members of the Society for Artistic Research in Germany (Gesellschaft für künstlerische Forschung in Deutschland), created in 2018, and spokespersons for the Baden-Wuerttemberg regional group, as well as founding members of the Alliance for Equitable Arts and Cultural Work, Baden-Wuerttemberg (Bündnis für eine gerechte Kunst- und Kulturarbeit Baden-Württemberg), established in 2021.

Herbordt/Mohren were fellows at Akademie Schloss Solitude between 2008 and 2010. After further residencies in Bulgaria, India and Serbia, they moved their focus of life and work to Stuttgart in 2012.