A Living Tableau Between Theater and Museum

Directors Ersan Mondtag and Nadim Samman present a bold co-production that blurs boundaries between stage and gallery space. Alternde Meister stages a performance within the Gemäldegalerie's collection, creating what the artists describe as "a Berlin Vanitas in dialogue with living and deceased Old Masters."

The production transforms the museum into a theater, with performers moving through the gallery's landscape of classical paintings. It creates "a living tableau that hovers between exhaustion and reinvention, disappearance and permanence," weaving contemporary bodies and voices into conversation with centuries-old artworks. This is theater as curation, performance as curatorial gesture—a work that asks what happens when living artists meet the permanent collection.

Part of Berlin Art Week programming, Alternde Meister is a collaboration between Berliner Ensemble and Gemäldegalerie, two of Berlin's most significant cultural institutions. The premiere performances run September 11-13, with multiple time slots available. Tickets sold through the Ensemble's box office and Eventim webshop.

Perfect for audiences interested in contemporary performance, art installation, and the intersection of theater with visual culture. A uniquely Berlin experience that challenges where theater happens and what art can be.

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