Ivan Stanev ( bg, Иван Станев, born 29 June 1959, died 1 December 2023) was an author, theatre and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, scenographer and new media artist, who has been living in Berlin since 1988, and more recently in Paris.

Biography

Ivan Stanev was born in the city of Varna, Bulgaria. His mother, Donka Raikova, was a lawyer and poet and his father, Stanju Stanev, was an engineer and photographer. He enrolled into a German-language high school, while also studying intensively French, Russian and English. He got his degree in Theatre Directing from the

National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a performing, cinematic and media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian university in the field of theatre ...

in Sofia. While a student in the academy, he founded a clandestine avant-garde theatre group, which led to severe conflicts with censorship in Communist Bulgaria. Not allowed to work as a theatre director anymore, he went on to study

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the Sofia University, and started to translate the works of Theodor Adorno and

Heiner Muller __NOTOC__ Heiner is a German male name, a diminutive of Heinrich, and also a surname. Given name *Heiner Backhaus (born 1982), professional footballer *Heiner Baltes (born 1949), former football defender *Heiner Brand (born 1952), former West Ge ...

, in the meantime writing plays, poems and essays, all to be published much later. In 1988, he was invited to present his theatre production called ''The Wound Woyzeck'' at a theatre festival in West-Berlin. He decided not to return to Bulgaria and to live in exile instead. He began to write in German and to stage his own plays in Berlin. Since 1999, he has also worked on several major Franco-German theatre productions. Due to his growing interest in visual arts, he directed and produced two experimental films: ''Villa Dei Misteri'' and ''Luxor Las Vegas''. In 2009 he finished his first independent feature film, shot on 35 mm, called ''Moon Lake'', produced by Donka Angelova. He lived in Berlin and Paris and worked in both Germany and France. He passed away on December 1st 2023.

Writings

;In Bulgarian * ''The Exterminated Denizens (excerpts from the sketchbooks of a démodé modernist)'' - poetry, drama, theory: 1985-1987. Publishing house "Virga", Sofia 1994, ( bg, Избитите обитатели (из тетрадките на един закъснял модернист) - поезия, драма, теория 1985-1987) ;In German *1992 ''Lapsus Linguae'',Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
/ref> Autoren-Kollegium Berlin *2000 ''Postskriptum'', a poem, Juliettes Literatursalon Berlin *2002 ''Villa Dei Misteri'', Juliettes Literatursalon Berlin *2003 ''Luxor Las Vegas'', Konkursbuch Verlag Berlin/Tübingen *2009 ''Moon Lake'', a poem, Publishing house Altera *2017 ''Abrasax Asteroiden'', a poem, Bleibende Steinzeit/Tumult/Sonderzahl Wien *2018 ''Place Fantôme'', dramatic poem, T.INTE Berlin ;In English *202
''Poems in Posthuman Akkadian''

Films

;Films shot on video
Villa dei misteri
(2003)
Luxor Las Vegas
(2006)
Le Bleu du Ciel
(2016)
Inge
(2019) ;Films shot on 35 mm * Moon Lake (2009) ;Web Television
''TTV - Totleben TV'' (2023)

Installations

Don Juan im Kumpelnest 3000 zu Berlin
(2000)
Hollywood Forever
(2004)
Place Fantôme
(2018)

New Media Art

CHEZ TOTLEBEN , Phantom Art Apartment
(2023)
GOT , Garden of Totleben
(2023)
TO DESCA , Totleben´s Writing Desk
(2023)

Exhibitions

2022)

2022)

2022)

2022)
MISS TOTO K. , SEVEN STAR GALLERY , BERLIN
2022)

Selected Major Productions

*1982 ''Wildwechsel (Deer Path) after Kroetz'' – banned performance *1984 ''The Love for Three Oranges'' by Ivan Stanev after Gozzi *1985, 1986 ''Alchimie de la douleur (The Alchemy of Sorrow)'' collage by Ivan Stanev after Chekhov, Wittgenstein, Baudelaire, Ionesco – banned performance *1987, 1988 ''Woyzeck. Die Wunde Woyzeck. Bildbeschreibung'' (''The Wound Woyzeck'') after Büchner / Müller, Theatre Sofia, Hebbel Theater Berlin *1989 ''Betrogen / Gestern an einem sonnigen Nachmittag (Betrayal/Yesterday on a Sunny Afternoon)'' after Harold Pinter / Heiner Müller, Studiotheater München *1990/91 ''Schuld und Bühne (Rhyme and Punishment)'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Eurokaz Zagreb *1991 ''Hermaphroditus'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Kampnagelfabrik Hamburg, Mickery Amsterdam, Theater der Welt Essen *1992 ''Brüderchen und Schwesterchen (Brother and Sister)'', by Ivan Stanev, Podewil Berlin *1995 ''Die Möwe (The Seagull)'' by Chekhov, Volksbühne Berlin *1998 ''Sprechen-Schweigen (Speak-Fall Silent)'' after Ionesco/Wittgenstein, Podewil Berlin *1998 ''Good night, ladies'' after Shakespeare/Müller, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin *1999 ''Histoire de l'œil (Story of the Eye) by Georges Bataille'', Théâtre de la Manufacture Nancy, Theatre Sofia *1999 ''Don Juan im Kumpelnest 3000 zu Berlin (Don Juan in Kumpelnest 3000 in Berlin)'', Sophiensaele Berlin *2000 ''Le bleu du ciel (The Blue of Noon)'' by Georges Bataille, Sophiensaele Berlin, Théâtre de Chartres, La rose des vents Lille, Théâtre Antoine Vitez Aix-en-Provence *2001 ''Villa Dei Misteri'' by Ivan Stanev, Sophiensaele Berlin, Théâtre de la Bastille Paris, Théâtre Antoine Vitez Aix-en-Provence, La rose des vents Lille, FFT Düsseldorf *2002 ''Luxor Las Vegas'' by Ivan Stanev, Sophiensaele Berlin *2004 ''Hollywood Forever'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Le Maillon Strassburg, La rose des vents Lille, FFT Düsseldorf, Gessnerallee Zürich *2004 ''Moon Lake'', after a poem by Ivan Stanev, Norwegian Theatre Academy Fredrikstad *2005 ''Digging Materials ( bg, Изкопни материали)'' by Ivan Stanev after Platonov, Theater Sfumato, Sofia *2009, 2010 ''Mord im Burgtheater (Murder in Burgtheater)'' by Ivan Stanev, Volksbühne Berlin, Le Maillon Strassburg *2011 ''Rustschuk - Die gerettete Zunge (Rustschuk - The Saved Tongue)'' by Elias Canetti, Theater Osnabrück *2013 ''Bitte bei TOTLEBEN klingeln'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Wonderloch Kellerland / Berlin *2015 ''TTV. Live from Todessa'' - Totleben TV *2017 ''Scherzo di Follia'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Kopfgeldjäger, Berlin *2018 ''Place Fantôme'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin

Grants and awards

VILLA DEI MISTERI , Special Ivan Stanev , FilmFest München
2003)
VILLA DEI MISTERI , Videoart Award , AsoloArtFilmFestival, Italy
2005)
WEIL , Simone Weil , Work in Progress , GVL, Neustart Kultur
(2022)
LA TÊTE , Jeanne Hébuterne , Work in Progress , GVL, Neustart Kultur
(2022)
KAMIKAZE KARAOKE , Work in Progress , Akademie der Künste, Berlin
(2022)
NINURTA´S EXPLOITS , Poems in Posthuman Akkadian , Work in Progress , Fonds Darstellende Künste
(2022)
MISS TOTO K. , Toto Koopman , Work in Progress , Fonds Darstellende Künste
(2022)