Artist-in-Residence
Danai Anesiadou
My name is Danai Anesiadou. I was born in Germany, raised in Greece and Belgium, and now live in Brussels. When people ask me what I do, I play with my fingers instead of saying, “I’m a performance artist.” Then I usually add: “I also make videos, installations, black box dance-theatre and would like to act in a film some day.” A live event is always at the centre of my work. I don’t believe in separating life and work. Therefore, I frequently collaborate with talented friends and family members. Some say I’m married to the idea that theatre is a space for autobiographical confession and that I tend to offer audiences insight into the neurotic mess of my stage character’s family history and private life. I agree about that on some level, but do believe that some things are best kept secret. Others add that my work explores a revisitation of the magical, the surreal; invests in cheap objects and actions; an improvised church where actual poetics and sublimation are found in the bargain bin. I say: when one has to write one’s own biography, let it be written in the first person singular.