Artist
Anja Ibsch

b. 1968, Germany

Anja Ibsch has been actively working as an artist and curator in the areas of performance and installation since 1993. Based in Berlin, she creates intense works that explore personal, cultural and social aspects of human presence while researching the endurance and tolerance levels of her body. Frequently inspired by myths of sainthood, sacrifice and release, her work emphasizes and extends connections between her body and the earth. Her varied actions have included eating dust, offering the surface of her skin as a nesting ground for worms, and melting ice on her eyes. She has performed in primarily in Europe and Asia, and more recently in Canada.

DOCUDRAMA with Anja Ibsch

In conjunction with FADO’s on-going International Visiting Artist series, we invite local performance artists to participate in a new networking initiative. This is a chance for you to come meet international visiting artists in person, and talk to them (and a few of your local colleagues) about your work. To this end, FADO proposes DOCUDRAMA, an informal evening where up to 10 local artists can meet to talk about their work and show up to 10 minutes of documentation. Space is limited and we want to keep the sessions limited, therefore participants must reserve their spot in advance.

In this DOCUDRAMA local artists are invited to present short talks about their work in the presence of German artist and organizer Anja Ibsch.

Performance
Performances by Anja Ibsch

I do performance art, because this is the only way to express, what I want to express. If I could say it in another way, it would be useless to do it any longer.

Anja Ibsch

FADO is pleased to present a series of performances by German artist Anja Ibsch over the month of March at The Drake Hotel in both the Yoga Den (durational performances) and during Notes from the Underground, The Drakes on-going performance series. In addition, Ibsch will give a lecture at Toronto’s Goethe-Institut, speaking about her own work and the current performance art scene in Berlin, where she lives and works.

In her performance work, Anja Ibsch characteristically tests her bodily limits, creating images that combine conceptual concerns with tasks of endurance or physical strength. For the audience, these images work to transform the way we view or understand the performer’s physical identity. At the same time, the works engage the performer in a changing perception of her relationship to the world around her. Ibsch creates her work in response to the circumstances that present themselves, adapting to local environments and situations.

Performances at The Drake | Co-sponsored by The Drake’s Artist Residency Program
March 3: 9pm–12pm
March 7: 9pm–12pm
March 21: 9pm

Lecture by Anja Ibsch | Co-sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Performance Art in Berlin
March 22: 7pm
Goethe-Institut, 163 King Street West

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer