Set design model by Anna Viebrock

The office I worked with gave me the book Anna Viebrock: Das Vorgefundene erfinden as a gift. I didn’t know the famous stage designer at the time and as a rare book out of print, it arrived in a bit of a weary state. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed having seen my other colleagues receiving brand new architect biographies as gifts.

It was much later, when I was doing my diploma project – a theatre in Brussels, that I picked up the book again. Through my studies and the way that I had worked in the office along with other factors, the book’s value started to become apparent, with new layers of meaning to me.

Woyzeck, Stuttgart, 1986.

I also proceed in a similar way with my spatial constructions in which I combine elements, things, and spaces that are as contradictory as possible. The goal is a counterpoint to everything that I see.

– Anna Viebrock

In the production of Tristan and Isolde at Bayreuth, 2005, the design of the scenery was inspired by the interior of an ocean liner. In the scene of König Markes’ palace the ceiling was inspired by the Wesendonck Home in Zürich (now the Rietberg Museum), and the historical surface was lit extensively with found industrial fluorescent tubes. Isolde’s illness was revealed by her constantly trying to turn down the light. Although the stage set is a physical space equipped with objects from the real world, it is never a real space for people to live in. It remains an image and an idea, but what amazes me is how many direct emotions the image contains, even without knowing/seeing the play.