"What I really like about Katharina Simons' work is the fearlessness (please understand this quite positively) with which very popular formats, especially from the field of gaming, a pop-oriented aesthetic and rather difficult and presuppositional themes are combined."
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Diekmann on "CALL OF MORAL DUTY"
"Simons thus remains true to her roots: she unites theatre and mediality and lets them enter into a symbiosis. (...) In a quirky way, all the senses are addressed: you hear, you see - but you also smell, taste and feel."
Franka Potzler - professional copywriter with a degree in theatre studies on "CALL OF MORAL DUTY"
"Call of Moral Duty is "a trial within an intimate atmosphere, in which the observers and co-deciders are confronted with their own moral compass.""
Sebastian Kraus, Augsburger Allgemeine on "CALL OF MORAL DUTY"
Katharina Simons
Katharina Simons* is a freelance director for multimedia performance art.
Since 2019 she has been publishing her artistic works under the label CUTTY SHELLS, works which generate new phenomena of perception in the field of tension between reality - virtuality and the material - immaterial. The first step towards a new (better world) begins with a change in perception - this is the philosophy of CUTTY SHELLS.
The works always follow an interdisciplinary and scientific approach and interweave theory with aesthetic practice. They follow the vision of developing interdisciplinary hybrid spaces between performing arts and virtual space, making use of performative practice to create authenticity in the intermedial in-between space, thus engendering new phenomena of perception. The focus of Simons’ artistic work is the examination of concepts of reality, their aspects of perception and forms of alienation. To this end she focuses primarily on visual aspects of an aesthetic, which is always oriented towards pop culture phenomena and characterised by hyperbolic embodiments and sculptural representations. The intimate atmospheres, created within alien worlds, bring new desires and truths to the surface. In the field of tension between fiction and reality, humour and provocation, surreal and intense productions are created that burn themselves into the retina like a beacon.
*Katharina Simons studied theatre and media studies with a minor in philosophy at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg. Discovering that her dual interest in both theatre and in media studies to be an massive artistic dichotomy, Simons switched to the University in Hildesheim for her Master's degree. In the degree programme "Staging the Arts and the Media" she found her focus: the intermedial in-between space - performative practice under intermedial conditions. She also accompanies innovative dance and performance projects in the independent scene as a dramaturge.
Current work
EXIT THROUGH THE INSIDE
A transmedia dance performance
Premiere: 22/02/2024 I Tafelhalle Nuremberg
EXIT THROUGH THE INSIDE is a transmedia dance performance that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the views and questions of techno-shamanism. To what extent can technology bring us closer to our nature?
Through transmedia storytelling, voice, body, sound and the "digital sphere" develop a dance that creates fascinating inner worlds. The dialogue between inner and outer spaces becomes a performative act and creates a collective rite of transcendence.
The project is being developed in cooperation with the digital artists' collective Ruhregebieterinnen and is a co-production of Tafelhalle Nürnberg and Tanznetz Freiburg.
This project is made possible by the Bavarian State Association for Contemporary Dance (BLZT) with funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR. Dance Aid Programme. Supported by the City of Nuremberg, the City of Fürth and the Kulturstiftung der Sparkasse Nürnberg.
MOTHER'S SHIP - a processual opening (performance)
Premiere: March/April 2025 I Kulturforum Fürth
What are a mother's primal instincts and what wisdom do they harbour? Are these phenomena not only accessible to women with children?
MOTHER'S SHIP is a performative amalgamation of three pieces of research that deal with the topic of being a mother. Each research has its own question. Each research has its own method. Each research has its own perspective. Each research project is an invitation for everyone to look at motherhood from a non-binary gender perspective and to experience the individual essence of motherhood in a shared process.
The findings of the research are filtered in advance into small participatory formats and invite visitors to participate in the production process in advance.
All the research will be brought together in a full-length performance at the Kulturforum in Fürth. A work with screams and silence, text and sound, milk and liquid latex.
THE SHAMANIC TRACK - an interdisciplinary research project between the worlds
MOTION TRACKING is SHAMANISM
Research period: 2024 I LEONARDO - Nuremberg Centre for Innovation and Creativity
The research project THE SHAMANIC TRACK explores the relationship between spirituality and virtuality and investigates the translation of a "shamanic soul healing journey" into virtual space. Motion tracking as an imagined shamanic practice opens up the possibility of travelling to higher, non-physically accessible dimensions. At the interface of analogue and digital space, theatrical and immersive staging strategies will be used to create an interactive ritual in the intermedial space in between.
Archive
TUMBLING DOWN MY UNIVERSE
A participatory (virtual) performance
Premiere: August 2022 I Tanzzentrale of the Nuremberg Region
Based on the feeling of longing and the desire for escapist experiences, Katharina Simons conceived a participatory, virtual performance.
With the self-developed staging strategy of Imaginative Pictrue Sharing, the performance artist Katharina Simons gently and at the same time with "refreshing confusion" (visitor quote) leads the visitors into the images of their - and at the same time - their subconscious. The shared experience takes centre stage. An experience outside of everyday reality. A game that can only unfold in the vastness of virtuality.
The performance was developed from the results of a research project "DIVING BRAIN": The research project is supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
The performance was also created as part of the Alte Schule's artist-in-residence programme, curated by Barbars Bess.
SECRET SPACES IN THE BODY
A performative double-bill
This performance evening shows the two solo works by Friederike Heine "Das Geheimnis, versteht es, sich hinter die Horizontlinie zurückziehen" and CUTTY SHELLS' "TUMBLING DOWN MY UNIVERSE". The two solos are fluidly linked by the architecture of the performance space and the stimulation of ephemeral places of the imagination.
The performative double evening also offers a participatory, workshop-like experiential space. Using body-based practices, somatic approaches to voice and language, strategies of expression will be sought in order to create dream-like imaginations and hidden vocalities of the body. This workshop opens up a space of experience that invites participants to discover the visualisability and acoustics of inner spaces together.
The performative double-bill and the workshop concept were created as part of the ALTE SCHULE's artist-in-residence programme, curated by Barbara Bess.
CALL OF MORAL DUTY - an interactive livestream performance
Premiere: October 2021 I Tafelhalle Nuremberg
One word. You are hyped!
One word. You are cancelled!
One joke. Who do you decide to be?
The performance is an immersive encounter. An encounter with the construct of one's own morality, accompanied by text passages from Nietzsche's "so spake Zarathustra". The audience anonymously decides on the moral course of the performance.
A flashy, surreal visual language, filled with tingling objects and whispering, munching symbols, leads social understandings of art and morality ad absurdum. Captured and followed by the eye of a moving camera, this playful scenario creates a headstrong and intimate atmosphere, which puts one's own moral compass and integrity to the test.
The project is a co-production with the Tafelhalle Nuremberg in the KunstKulturQuartier and is made possible by the Bavarian State Association for Contemporary Dance (BLZT) with funds from the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art, the City of Nuremberg and the Cultural Foundation of the Sparkasse Nuremberg, as well as with the kind support of the Tanzzentrale der Region Nürnberg e.V..
