About

Ersan Mondtag is an interdisciplinary artist, particularly in the field of visual arts, theater and opera.

His works have been performed and invited internationally, at venues such as the Berliner Ensemble, Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspiel Köln, Thalia Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Schauspiel Gent, Staatsoper Hannover; most recently at NT Gent, Antwerp Opera, Lorraine and in Krakow and Belgrade. He has interpreted such diverse classics as 'Die Orestie' at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, 'Freischütz' at the Staatsoper Kassel, 'Antikrist' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as contemporary works, including Elfriede Jelinek's 'Wut' at Schauspiel Köln, 'Wonderland Avenue' (Schauspiel Köln) and 'Hass-Triptychon' by Sybille Berg (Wiener Festwochen and Gorki Theater, Berlin), 'Phaedra' by Thomas Jonigk at Schauspiel Köln or 'Das Erbe' by Olga Bach at the Münchner Kammerspiele. His own play developments such as 'Tyrannis' (Staatstheater Kassel), 'Das Internat' (Schauspiel Dortmund) and 'Die Vernichtung' (Theater Bern) were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen.

At the Berlinale 2023, Mondtag will celebrate his debut as a director of a 'theater in film': In the film 'Seneca' (directed by Robert Schwencke), he designed the Seneca play 'Tyest' with Samuel Finzi, Louis Hofmann and John Malkovitch.

In 2024, together with multimedia artist Yael Bartana, he designed the German pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale.

Mondtag has received several awards, both for his direction and for his original stage design compositions. In 2016 as costume designer, young director and young stage designer of the year (Theater heute) for 'Tyrannis', in 2017 as stage and costume designer for 'Die Vernichtung', in 2019 with the 3sat Prize for 'Das Internat'. His most recent awards include the Oper! award for 'Best Stage Designer' for 'Der Schmied von Gent', 'Stage Designer of the Year' in the 2022 German Stage Critics' Poll and 'Best European Opera Production' at the French Critics' Award for 'Der Silbersee'.

The spectrum of works and awards testifies to Mondtag's performative and interdisciplinary vision of theater, which - not only since his recent more intensive involvement with opera - has always seemed to be fed by the 'spirit of music'. Mondtag's theater addresses the mechanisms of our psyche, showing victims and perpetrators of language and rationality. This results in expressionistically overwhelming visual worlds ('Salome', Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin), but also quiet surreal studies ('De Living' at NT Gent) as a challenge to perceptual convention and a powerfully sensual political impact on rigid realities.