About
Simone Gisela Weber is a Berlin-based artist, choreographer, dancer and visual artist. She studied theatre and cultural studies at the University of Leipzig (BA Culture Studies and Theater Studies 2015) and graduated in 2019 from the Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin (HZT) with a BA in dance, context and choreography. In 2022 she graduated from the Master program Time and Space Arts at The Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki and in 2023 she graduated succesfully from the Master program DAS Choreography at the Academy of Theatre and Dance of Amsterdam University of the Arts.
For her graduation work reverberation which was presented in the frame of KUVAN KEVÄT 2022 in Helsinki she received the Anita Snellman Grant “a work of art which needed to be made”.
In her artistic practice she works at the intersection of choreography, installation and performance. Her work explores the intersections of human and non-human perceptions as it invites bodies to engage with tangible, invisible as well as forgotten materialities. In her artistic practice she is interested in constructing complex physical and visual compositions in which the body is placed in a state of risk. She believes that the confluence of physical forces from the material and immaterial worlds creates the unknown and the unusual. In her work, she draws inspiration from ubiquitous habits and bodily states, which she critically questions through an interplay of different media. In her artistic practice, Simone searches for strange encounters between human and non-human bodies and different tangible/intangible, visible/invisible, remembered/forgotten materialities and asks: what kind of bodies are formed and evoked by these encounters and collisions? Her choreographic practice manifests itself in multidisciplinary forms of presentation, ranging from stage performances to (performance) installations and performative workshops, in which she always questions the power relationship between performers and dancers-bodies/objects/materials and audience-and seeks new forms of encounters in performative and theatrical contexts. She deepened this focus of her artistic practice in 2022 within the framework of the #takeheart Absolvent:innen Residenzförderung BiP (HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin) funded by the Fond Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In this research project SHIFTS, she explored the question of the extent to which aesthetic practices can succeed in decentralising the human gaze in theatrical, dance and performative contexts.
She has realized the following solo works, among others: Idioglossia (2019), shown at Uferstudios Berlin and Milchhof Berlin; I AM NOT ALONE (2019), performed at Uferstudios Berlin and Paul Studio Berlin; archIved No.2 (2019) shown at Uferstudios Berlin; the performance installation reverberation (2022) shown at Tila/Kuva Gallery in Helsinki and Melting Eyes (2022) and What can (not) be seen from here (2023).
She is co-founder of the performing arts collective Kimberly Kaviar. Kimberly Kaviar conceives and plans various performative formats, that reveal their specificity at the intersection between performace art, choreography, and theater. Kimberly Kaviar developed works such as Veneralia (2015), 3D WHITE (2016) and Foundation (2017). 3D White was invited to the P-Bodies Festival in Leipzig. MANIFEST: A Work on Progress (2017), an eight-hour performance installation, was shown in Berlin at Uferstudios. In Retrospective: Ecology of Occupation (2017) they experimented with the workshop format, this work was shown in the Super Local Berlin series by Constanza Macras/DorkyPark at Studio Verlin and was invited to the Performatica Festival in Puebla, Mexico. In 2021 Kimberly Kaviar realized the video essay and performance installation LEASHED UNLEASHED in cooperation with Ringtheater Berlin and Theaterhaus G7 Mannheim, supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Kimberly Kaviar was selected for the LAFT Berlin's "Newcomer" mentoring program in 2018 and mentored by curator Ricardo Carmona in Berlin until the end of 2019.
She and Julia Keren Turbahn have worked together artistically for many years, exploring the state of procrastination as a productive force. In 2020, they explored the specific, subtle logic of togetherness in moments of hesitation as part of the a.part Festival for contemporary dance students and alumni at ada Studio Berlin. With the title Hesitation Waltz they presented their research results and choreographic experiments on the festival blog, which was created as a form of presentation due to the pandemic. Hypothetic Bodies (2021) is their most recent joint choreographic work. In this dance performance they explored the strange temporalities and potential of stasis. In collaboration with the Uferstudios Berlin and the Maschinenhaus Essen, Hypothetic Bodies was was premiered in digital form due to the pandemic as well as in the context of internal showings. The film Hypothetic Bodies was shown again in 2022 as part of the a.part Festival. Hypothetic Bodies was supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and the Kunststiftung NRW.
Together with Rosemarie Eberl, Simone has been conducting artistic research on the topic of "Being under Pressure" in collaboration with young people since 2020. Rosemarie and Simone develop workshop formats in which they research the topic of "Being under Pressure" together with young people of different ages, social and cultural backgrounds. These workshops took place at the Anna Freud Studienkolleg in Berlin, at the Gemeinschaftshauptschule Graf-Recke-Straß in Düsseldorf and at the Theater Strahl in Berlin. The research was supported by a grant for freelance artists offering a program for young audiences from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin (2020); a working grant from the Federal Child and Youth Plan (KJP) of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and from ASSITEJ membership fees (2020); the Dezentrale Kulturarbeit Tempelhof-Schöneberg and the Tanzhaus NRW. The dance piece Faust im Nacken for young audience, which resulted from this research, was performed at Theater Strahl Berlin in November 2022. The production was funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Capital Cultural Fund and Theaterhaus Mitte. In spring 2023, a mobile version of Faust im Nacken - on tour was shown in various schools in Düsseldorf. Faust im Nacken - on tour is a co-production with Tanzhaus NRW.
As a dancer and performer Simone has worked with Anna Till, deufert&plischke, Arneout Mik, Amparo González Sola, Zander Porter, Anna Aristarkhova, I -Jung Lim, Ellinor Ljungkvist, Sanna Blennow, Jan Rozman, Nile Koetting and Boris Charmatz among others.
As a dramaturge, choreographic and artistic mentor, she works with the choreographer Sanna Blennow (Sweden/Denmark) and the choreographer Mikko Niemistö (Finland).