Writer

BETTINA WILPERT

Bettina Wilpert is a feminist writer whose work is concerned with topics such as sexual violence and reproductive rights. She studied Cultural Studies and English Studies in Potsdam and Berlin as well as Creative Writing at Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig. Her debut novel "That kind of thing doesn't happen to us" was published by Verbrecher Verlag in 2018. The novel won several literature prizes and was adapted as a play by Thalia Theater Hamburg and others. It has been translated into several languages. Furthermore, the film adaptation will air in April 2023 on German television. Her second novel "Drifters" was published in 2022 and is concerned with deviant women who were incarcerated in the GDR under the pretext they had an STD. Bettina Wilpert lives with her family in Leipzig, Germany.

Composer and Vocal Artist

UTE WASSERMANN

Ute Wassermann is a vocal artist and composer living in Berlin. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg with Henning Christiansen and Claus Böhmler. Her artistic work comprises the areas of composition, improvisation, and performance art. Her singing is extreme and polyphonic. It shimmers between human, electronic, animal, and inorganic sound qualities and can enter into relationships with specially composed or existing acoustic habitats. In addition, Ute Wassermann extends her voice with bird whistles, field recordings, resonant and loudspeaker objects. Ute Wassermann takes part in festivals and concert series in Europe, Australia, Asia, Mexico, Brazil, and the US. Regularly, and in an international context, she performs with other musicians. Numerous works works written for her voice premiered in collaboration with ensembles and orchestras.

Find her vimeo channel here.

Visual Artist

CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER

Clemens von Wedemeyer, born 1974 in Göttingen, Germany, studied photography and media in Bielefeld and fine arts at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, where he now holds a professorship for media art (expanded cinema). As a filmmaker and artist he lives in Berlin. His films and complex video installations embrace several storylines and points of view. His works explore the personal and collective history of the 20th century as well as the power and control structures of the present.
 

Writer

KURT DRAWERT

Kurt Drawert, born in Hennigsdorf, Brandenburg in 1956, held an apprenticeship as an electronics specialist in Dresden, worked various temporary jobs, graduated high school from evening classes, and studied at the Institute for Literature in Leipzig from 1982 to 1984. Kurt Drawert works as a freelance author in the fields of prose, poetry, drama, and essay. After residencies in the Federal Republic of Germany and at Villa Massimo in Rome, he now lives in Darmstadt since 1996, where he is the director of the Center for Young Literature. He is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and the Academy of the Arts in Saxony. His work, in all genres, encompasses a fundamental theme: the intersection of body, language, and time. The experience of the totalitarian East plays an important role in the work of Kurt Drawert.

Composer

CAROLA BAUCKHOLT

Carola Bauckholt was born in Krefeld in 1959. After working at the Theater am Marienplatz (TAM), Krefeld for several years, she studied composition at the Musikhochschule Köln with Mauricio Kagel. Since 2015 she has been teaching composition with a focus on contemporary music theater at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria. A central moment in her work is thinking about the phenomenon of perception and understanding. Her compositions often mix elements from visual art, musical theater, and concert music. To do this, she likes to use noisy sounds, which are often generated with unfamiliar means and not incorporated into a given composition grid, but rather observed and continued in their free development.

Ballhaus Fellow

SILKE FISCHER

Silke Fischer, born in Karlsruhe in 1961, studied visual communication with a focus on film at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg. After graduating, she co-founded the Hamburg filmmaker collective Abbildungszentrum and edited the video magazine Der Renegat together with Jan Peters and Peter Ott. During this time she realized several documentaries and short feature films (among others "Buy1Get1Free" D1997; "Putzen in Paris" D1998). At the same time, under the label Sisi Voss, she designed commercials and image films together with Stefanie Wirth. In 2001 she designed the production design for the debut film "Bungalow" by Ulrich Köhler. In the following years she worked as a production designer team with production designer and filmmaker Volko Kamensky for various cinema and TV films. Since 2011 Silke Fischer has been working exclusively as a production designer - mainly for European co-productions: among others "Lore" D/AUS 2012 director: Cate Shortland; "Toni Erdmann" D/A 2016 director: Maren Ade; "3 Tage in Quiberon" D/A/F 2018 director: Emily Atef; "In my Room" D/I 2018 director: Ulrich Köhler.

Silke Fischer's cinema and television films have received numerous awards. For the Netflix series "Unorthodox" (D2020, directed by Maria Schrader), she received the German Television Award 2020 in the category Best Set Design together with costume designer Justine Seymour.

Silke Fischer lives in Hamburg and Zurich, where she has headed the Production Design course at the ZHdK as professor since 2018.
The Ballhaus Fellowship is supported by the Federal Foreign Office