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Christina Schelhas – Questions

Which topic turns up again and again in your artistic activities?

In my stage productions, I again and again look for new aesthetic forms to deal with contemporary feminist and socio-political topics. Here, I constantly encounter myths, tales of heroes and fairy-tales. I am fascinated by their symbolic and visually stunning strength, and I believe that the “old” stories are ideally suited to serve as a template to critically address contemporary issues. Here, it is important for me to create sensual spaces for the audience to experience things and humorously question clichés and obsolete narrations.

What do you seek to achieve with your arts education activities?

I believe that the political force of drama lies not only in its “end product”, the performance, but also in the way it has been produced. To me, drama is like a sort of experimenting laboratory for society. Actively and self-determinedly participating in processes can be unbelievably forceful and strengthening. With my arts education activities, I seek to create free spaces enabling encountering and communicating – with oneself and within a community.

What, in your view, is the essence of an artistic intervention in arts education?

To me, artistic intervention means jolting, pausing or shifting one’s own perspective. This means thinking up or rethinking cultural formats in order to enable critical debating of social structures. Asking oneself again and again: how can taking part in culture be made accessible to all at an inter-sectional level? Which topics and whom do I create space for? What and who remains invisible in this context?