In search of absence: Creation strategies in scenic works of Heiner Goebbels

Abstract

The present study examines Heiner Goebbels’ intermedial strategies in selected stage works, with particular attention to the role of absence as a central aesthetic and creative principle. From the perspective of intermedial studies, it investigates the creation strategies developed by the composer and theater director Heiner Goebbels (b. 1952, Germany) in his scenic works, and, in particular, in three of them: Landscape with Distant Relatives (2002), Eraritjaritjaka (2004), and Stifters Dinge (2007). Taking absence as an aesthetic premise, as a creative strategy that allows for the emergence of everything that is not seen, heard, or perceived at first instance, the procedures that give rise to Goebbels’ scenic realizations are examined, and how his being a composer influences his way of directing the scene, of “composing” the scene.

Keywords

Intermediality / Stage production / Aesthetics of absence / Composed theatre

Funding

This research was supported by Centro Multimedia del Centro Nacional de las Artes, México, under the project titled “Estrategias de composición en las obras escénicas de Heiner Goebbels” with grant number 178 of the Programa de Apoyo a la Producción e Investigación en Arte y Medios, 2016 and by Universidad de Chile with the grant of the Programa de Apoyo a la Productividad Académica en Ciencias Sociales, Humanidades, Artes y Educación VID, modalidad “Apoyo a la traducción de artículos”, 2022.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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