Norbert Klassen (born 30 May 1941 in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

; died 1 December 2011 in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

), was an actor, stage director, influential

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist, educator and organizer of performance art festivals. He has lived and worked in

, and contributed significantly to making the city important for the contemporary performance art scene.
Brigitta Niederhauser (2011-12-03) ''Der Bund''. “Er suchte nach neuen Gedankenraeumen"

Life and work

Klassen trained acting at the Westphalian School of Acting in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

. His first engagement in the years 1963/64 was as a theatre actor at the

Theater Aachen Theater Aachen is a theatre in Aachen, Germany. It is the principal venue in that city for operas, musical theatre and plays. It is the home of the Aachen Symphony Orchestra. The original project was by Johann Peter Cremer, later altered by Kar ...

. He had since been active as an actor and stage director, among others at ''Studio am Montag'',

;

Bern Theatre Bern Theatre, known in the city as Stadttheater Bern, is an opera house and theatre in Bern, Switzerland. The theatre opened in 1903 and was modernised between 2015–2016 with significant structural changes made to the backstage and auditorium. ...

;

Komödie Düsseldorf Komödie Düsseldorf is a theatre in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

; Kammerspiele

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. He maintained links to the theatre world throughout his career, but his work received more acceptance within the performance art circuit, and Klassen identified himself primarily as a

ist. He was inspired by

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

and

Living Theatre The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...

. In his first performance, ''My Red Brother'', Klassen sat at a table holding a cigarette and watching the smoke rise, an action that he repeated in his performances through the years. Klassen had a black star tattooed on this bald head. The tattoo was result of a performance in homage to

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

and

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. This performance consisted in the action of the artist having his head tattooed inside a train station in 2008.
Shannon Cochrane (2011) ''Total Art Journal''. “Norbert Klassen. A Memoriam in 9 Parts.” Klassen's work had been influenced by a multitude of co-operations with international artists from the backgrounds of Theatre, acting,

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

and

intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe various interdisciplinarity art activities that occur between genres, beginning in the 1960s. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to works ...

. He participated in numerous events by the international performance art network around the world. Together with Gerhard Johann Lischka, Peter J. Betts, Rudolf Bober and others, Klassen founded the independent theatre collective ''Studio am Montag'' for

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu Roi, Ubu plays as a rejection of bot ...

in Bern in 1970, and run it in the position of director from 1971-87. The collective presented its productions in

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Their activities were funded by the City of Bern. In 1979/80, Klassen lived for one year in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Between 1980 and 1997, Klassen held a teaching position at the Schauspielschule am Konservatorium für Musik und Theater Bern, and from 1987 to 1995 he taught at the

F+F School for Art and Media Design Zurich The F+F School for Art and Design Zürich or F+F is a private art school in Zürich, Switzerland. F+F stands for "''Form und Farbe''" (in German, "shape and color"), a discipline practiced at the German art and architecture school Bauhaus. Histo ...

. In 1987, ''Studio am Montag'' transformed into ''STOP Performance Theater (STOP.P.T.)''. On this occasion, Klassen announced the „death of theatre“, and postulated

as the only adequate artistic succession. In 1992, Klassen received the Sisyphus-Prize awarded by the City of Bern. He returned the prize in 1995 as a protest against the drastic reduction of city subventions for the ''STOP Performance Theater (STOP.P.T.)''. Since 1998, Klassen had been organising the ''BONE Festival für Aktionskunst'' at the Schlachthaus Theatre in Bern.
BONE Festival für Aktionskunst After Klassen's death in December 2011, the performance collective

Black Market International (BMI) Black Market International (BMI) is a performance artist collective with international members, each with an established and independent practice as a solo performer. Since 1985 the group has presented durational collective performances worldwide. ...

had been bequeathed with Klassen's urn.WOZ Die Wochenzeitung ''WOZ Die Wochenzeitung'', (commonly abbreviated as ''WOZ'' or ''Wochenzeitung''), is a Swiss, German-language weekly newspaper, published in Zürich (Switzerland). History ''Die WochenZeitung'' (WoZ) first appeared on 1 October 1981. It was ba ...

Life and work

Selection of the significant performance productions since 1981

Black Market International

Bibliography

See also

References

External links