About

Ersan Mondtag (*1987, West Berlin) works at the intersection of sculpture, installation, performance, theatre, opera and film.

Regardless of medium, he conceives his works as spatial compositions in which the body, matter and architecture become carriers of memory. Rather than existing as separate disciplines, theatre, exhibitions and film constitute different manifestations of a single artistic practice.

At the core of Mondtag's work lies the question of how history becomes inscribed in bodies and matter. In his practice, matter possesses a life of its own. It is not shaped merely to represent something, but is understood as a body carrying its own memory. Wood, silicone, fabric, metal and architectural fragments bear the traces of time, touch, violence and loss, becoming repositories of history in their own right. His sculptures, reliefs, installations and spatial environments unfold as layered spaces in which individual biographies intersect with collective experience. Recurring themes throughout his work include sexuality, desire, vulnerability, violence, mortality, and the dynamics of collective exclusion and societal tyranny. His works explore how power inscribes itself onto bodies and how memory, identity and history become physically and spatially manifest.

Mondtag gained international recognition in 2024 with Monuments to an Unknown Person, the German Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, developed together with the artist Yael Bartana under the curatorial direction of Çağla Ilk. Drawing on the story of his grandfather, the project brought together installation, film, sculpture and performance to create an immersive environment exploring labour, identity, family history and the political conditions that shape individual lives. The pavilion marked a significant turning point in the development of Mondtag's sculptural and installation-based practice.

Alongside his sculptural and installation practice, Mondtag develops productions for theatre and opera as a director and stage and costume designer. His work has been presented at the Berliner Ensemble, Munich Kammerspiele, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Residenztheater Munich, Burgtheater Vienna, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Opéra de Lyon, National Theatre Prague and numerous other international institutions.

Mondtag's work has received numerous awards. In 2016, Theater heute named him Emerging Director of the Year, Emerging Stage Designer of the Year and Costume Designer of the Year for Tyrannis. In 2017, he was awarded Stage Designer of the Year and Costume Designer of the Year for The Annihilation. In 2019, he received the 3sat Prize at the Berlin Theatertreffen. He subsequently received the Oper! Award and was named Stage Designer of the Year in the critics' poll conducted by Deutsche Bühne. His productions and spatial concepts have been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen on four occasions.

(c) Lukas Städler