Body, Theory and Poetics of the Performative

The vision of the KTPP M.F.A. programme – ‘Launching the poetry of my body with the tootsies of my brain. Thoughts about a new M.F.A. concept’ – and the adventure it sets out have shaped the programme since its inception in 2018.

The M.F.A. in Body, Theory and Poetics of the Performative understands performance as a broad, inclusive concept. The programme explores what performance is and what it can be. Working with the material, with the body and with language, as well as theoretical reflection, are understood as distinct yet inextricably linked practices that converge in artistic work on and with the performative.

The key questions addressed by the degree programme are:

• Can the body become a site of resistance and a basis for action if it is produced by social power?
• If it has become impossible to formulate binding poetics of artistic practice, is the formulation of singular practices not the path to a universal, to a different kind of politics?
• If theoretical work is always linked to the social and material conditions of its own production, is theory not also the place where these conditions, our perception of them and their consequences can be changed in practice?

The exploration of these questions, which are central to any artistic work, finds a privileged place within the field of performance art, because here the body, theory and poetics are inextricably linked.

The M.F.A. enables students – and, time and again, the teaching staff as well – to develop their practice from a technical, theoretical and organisational perspective. The focus is on the artistic exploration rather than on a finished ‘product’. Individual artistic practice exists in a constant tension with collective work: collective processes enable individual works and allow them to emerge. Diverse artistic practices, different backgrounds of experience and varied artistic positions coexist and stand side by side.

Collective forms of critique and individual reviews form the core of the course programme. This process is presented and discussed in a final examination discussion at the end of the semester. In addition to these project-based modules, in-depth courses and seminars are offered in the fields of audio, video, movement, writing, lighting and stagecraft, with a view to refining artistic tools and enabling students to present their own work to a professional standard.

For teaching, projects and individual work, students have exclusive use of the Heusteigtheater experimental stage (Experimentierbühne) during the winter term, as well as access all year round to spacious facilities (movement studio, audio and video lab) on Mozartstraße in Stuttgart-Süd.

The M.F.A. KTPP is a full-time programme; classes are held in person.

You can view the exam registration period for the current semester on the Examinations Office’s website.