Terrain Vagus

Solo Performance, 2025

duration: 30 min

With Terrain Vagus Maria Berauer presents a solo performance for body, voice, and wire. Along a stretched 15-meter-long steel string, the artist explores the exhibition space through sound, voice, tremors, and creaking. In dialogue with the suspended sound carrier, a sonic and physical interaction unfolds in the moment—at the intersection of inner experience and external resonance. Sounds, perceived not only as audible but also as physical vibrations, almost tactilely touch the body and generate palpable fields of resonance. Felt sensations, the unspeakable, and implicit knowledge find their way from body to body—boldly, nerve-wrackingly, and with instability.

photos by Stefan Freund

Bleeding Bites

Selbst – Schuld – Katapult

engl.

Lecture performance in collaboration with Dr. des Alexandra Rau

performance materials: white sheets, microphoned scissors, colorful balloons, sparkler

2023

Old-age poverty is female. The reasons for this inequality include a gender-specific labor market, the still dominant male breadwinner model and the increasing dismantling of the welfare state. On the one hand, living in poverty in old age means having to manage with limited resources. On the other hand, poverty in old age also has an emotional impact on those affected. Feelings of failure, shame and guilt, fears and worries about the future, feelings of inferiority, loneliness or even melancholy regarding denied ideas of the future are also consequences of the structural problems that are written under the skin of individuals. Dr. takes this affective dimension of experiences of poverty in old age. des. Alexandra Rau together with the artist Maria Berauer in the form of a lecture performance.

Based on interview material that Alexandra Rau collected at the LMU as part of the DFG research project “Precarious Retirement,” women from different backgrounds are given a voice. How does poverty in old age feel for those affected and what effects do these feelings have on their everyday options? Using an interplay of ethnographic portraits, theoretical text fragments and artistic interventions, the lecture performance not only illustrates the structural side of female poverty in old age and aims to make this physically tangible, but also deals with perspectives for collective action.

Text and concept: Alexandra Rau
Performance: Maria Berauer
Speaker: Alexandra Rau, Sara van der Weck und Shirli Volk/Pauline Fusban

Fotos by Verena Kathrein

dt.

Lecture Performance in Collaboration with Dr. des Alexandra Rau

Performance Materialien: weißes Laken, mikrophonierte Schere, bunte Luftballons, Wunderkerze

2023

Altersarmut ist weiblich. Gründe für diese Ungleichheit sind u.a. ein geschlechtsspezifischer Arbeitsmarkt, das nach wie vor vorherrschende Male Breadwinner Model sowie der zunehmende Abbau des Sozialstaats. In Altersarmut zu leben bedeutet einerseits das Haushalten mit knappen Mittel. Altersarmut wirkt sich andererseits auch emotional auf die Betroffenen aus. Gefühle des Scheiterns, der Scham und Schuld, Zukunftsängste und Sorgen, Minderwertigkeitsgefühle, Einsamkeit oder auch Melancholie bezüglich verwehrter Zukunftsvorstellungen sind ebenso Folgeerscheinungen genannter struktureller Problemlagen, die sich den Individuen unter die Haut schreiben. Diese affektive Dimension von Altersarmutserfahrungen nimmt Dr. des. Alexandra Rau gemeinsam mit der Künstlerin Maria Berauer in Form einer Lecture Performance in den Blick.

Ausgehend von Interviewmaterial das Alexandra Rau im Rahmen des DFG-Forschungsprojekts „Prekärer Ruhestand“ an der LMU erhoben hat, erhalten Frauen aus unterschiedlichen Milieus eine Stimme. Wie fühlt sich Altersarmut für Betroffene an und welche Effekte haben diese Gefühle auf ihre alltäglichen Handlungsmöglichkeiten? Anhand eines Zusammenspiels von ethnographischen Portraits, theoretischen Textfragmenten und künstlerischen Interventionen verdeutlicht die Lecture Performance nicht nur die strukturelle Seite weiblicher Altersarmut und will diese körperlich erfahrbar machen sondern setzt sich auch mit kollektiven Handlungsperspektiven auseinander. (Alexandra Rau)

Text und Konzeption: Alexandra Rau
Performance: Maria Berauer
Sprecherinnen: Alexandra Rau, Sara van der Weck und Shirli Volk/Pauline Fusban

Fotos von Verena Kathrein

Everblasting Sand

Performance in collaboration with Birgit Wagner

2023

at Bewegungsbar “Beach Life Good Life” at Raumschiff Linz 2023

duration 16 min

photos by Elisabeth Ertl and Judith Breitenbrunner

A beach ball filled with sand hanging from the ceiling. A large knife. A watermelon. Two performers. One (Maria Berauer) in a swimsuit and sunglasses is basking in the sand blast and relishing giving her previously honey-coated body an all-over sand coating. The other, in shorts and undershirt, with a black cap, on all fours, is constantly rolling a watermelon from left to right, from right to left. In addition, crackling sand trickles from the loudspeaker.

dt.:

Ein mit Sand gefüllter Wasserball, der von der Decke hängt. Ein großes Messer. Eine Wassermelone. Zwei Performerinnen. Die eine (Maria Berauer) in Badeanzug, mit Sonnenbrille, suhlt sich im Sandstrahl und verpasst ihrem zuvor mit Honig überzogenen Körper lustvoll eine All-Over Sandpanade. Die andere, in Shorts und Unterhemd, mit schwarzer Kappe, auf allen Vieren, rollt unentwegt eine Wassermelone vorn links nach recht, von rechts nach links. Dazu knisterndes Sandrieseln aus dem Lautsprecher.

Kill Your Darlings

Solo Performance

2022

99 Miniballons, 1 needle, 2 nylon tights, 1 pillow

duration 90 min

The artist slowly moves through the room while lying on her back. Her nylon tights are filled to the brim with small, colorful balloons. She counts 1,2,3,4,…23 and punctures a balloon with a needle attached to her finger. It pops. repetition. Until there are only 7 balloons left. She puts these in a screw-top jar. For later.

The performance deals with the socially taboo topics of unfulfilled desire to have children, aging and so-called social freezing.

The performance took place during the opening of the exhibition “Auf- und Abwarten” by Carolin Wenzel at Farbenladen Munich

photos/videos by Carolin Wenzel and Maria Berauer

The Great Walk Backwards

solo performance backwards walk

2022

duration 60 min

Turn around. Walking backwards. One foot behind the other. Not seeing where to. Walking slowly. Backwards Moving forward. Trusting the steps. Feeling the ground. Watching traces. Undo progress. Still moving forward. Extend antennas. Perceive. Who do I want to have been?

The change of perspective is attempted, perception sharpened. New things are taken up, old things discarded, loved ones left behind. The body trains the realignment, the Moonwalker neurons get into action and create trouble in the system.

The performance explores backwards-walking as a possibility of reorientation in an “always-continuing-as-before-stream” and sets a fine, decelerated sign of resistance to the turbo-capitalist madness about progress.

…and like a fine ray of sand, time keeps running out… IT’S TIME TO GO WILD!

photos by Karim Dabbèche and Maria Berauer

dt.:

Der Große Rückschritt

Solo Performance Rückwärts Spaziergang

2022

Dauer 60 min

Umdrehen. Rückwärts gehen. Ein Fuß hinter den anderen. Nicht Sehen wohin. Langsam gehen. Sich rückwärts vorwärtsbewegen. Den Schritten vertrauen. Boden spüren. Spuren betrachten. Fortschritt rückgängig. Trotzdem voranschreiten. Antennen ausfahren. Wahrnehmen. Wer will ich gewesen sein?

Der Perspektivwechsel wird versucht, die Wahrnehmung geschärft. Neues wird aufgegriffen, Altes verworfen, Liebgewonnenes zurückgelassen. Der Körper trainiert die Neuausrichtung, die Moonwalker Neuronen geraten in Wallung und stiften Unruhe im System.

Die Performance erkundet das Rückwärtsgehen als Möglichkeit der Neuorientierung in einem „Immer-Weiter-wie-bisher-Strom“ und setzt ein feines, entschleunigtes Zeichen des Widerstands gegen den turbokapitalistischen Fortschrittswahn.

…und wie ein feiner Strahl aus Sand verrinnt unaufhörlich die Zeit … IT`S TIME TO GO WILD!

Zu Wasser/Zu Land (live)

life recording of two sessions (“Zu Wasser” and “Zu Land”) of The Hercules and Leo Case, with Kat Petroschkat and Karo Knote,
recorded at Out Of The Box Festival, Munich

2020

Concert for 3 voices, 3 waterglasses, 3 straws and drift wood

Listen to it here:

https://theherculesandleocase.bandcamp.com/album/zu-wasser-zu-land-live

The Art Of Swimming Learned In Less Than An Our

Performance by The Hercules and Leo Case

The human being is descended from the frog – this case Jean Pierre Brisset, delirious linguist of the forelast century, was sure about. His writings on the relationship between human and frog influenced the Surrealists and Dadas, who named him “Prince of the Thinkers”. The Hercules and Leo Case take Brisset at his word. His studies on the frogish and french languages, as well as his swimming lessons, form the starting point for their “Brisset remix”.

34 Days Lamento

Multimedia Installation, video, 2-channel audio, 10 min

2018

I sleep all the time so much, I think I already practice to die.
( Anna Maria Hartwig )

A radioplay, a video, a dress. Sounds, singing and words in memory of a person who has gone. A woman, motionless under a weeping willow moved by the wind. A long fade, a transition, from everything to nothing, from colored to white. And a moving light scanning the shadow that rests.

Remate

Videoinstallation, 2-channel audio, 22 min 56 sec

2012

Into complete darkness, a life-sized woman is being projected. Fixing the camera with her eyes, she – tentatively at first – starts taking little steps on the spot. Continously, she increases her pace, intensity and sound of her steps until, finally, her whole body seems to be vibrating. Having reached this moment of maximum effort, all movement suddenly comes to a halt and begins anew after a short pause. (7 repetitions)
Remate(span.):conclusion/end/climax

Annotation: The video is projected on a black board (2,00 x 1, 50 m) standing in a complete dark room, a subwoofer makes the sound physically tangible, the steps resonate on the floor. The person seems to be truly present.

Traradibummstrara

Public Performance in collaboration with Julia Fehenberger, City Hall, Munich

2006

It is the tragic-strange story of a beer tent fundamentalist. As part of the German offence of friendliness she seems to be a nice waitress in countrystyle. But it is her who becomes a suicide attacker, a nightmare for the „Laptop – and Leather trouser – Country”, a disaster for the “ World City with
heart “.
Filmed with hidden camera from two perspectives.

Don`t Worry, I´m Working

Video-Performance, 16 min 32 sec

2011

The video shows an oversized, hairless, adult baby in a romper suit working hard on its first big creation – the golden shit! In grotesque exaggeration the human being in the video is stylized as a monstrous baby, which tries to overcome its own nature at first playful then increasingly stubborn, finally desperate. The polarity of the supposed “free will” of the human and his determinations is questioned in humorous and sometimes weird – scary way.

Aba heit is koit*

(bavarian dialect: But today it`s cold)
regular guerilla dance performance in public space during 3 months in collaboration with Asisa Hafez , Munich

2016

The weekly dance performance was a reaction on the so-called demonstrations of fascistic organisation PEGIDA München which took placeevery day at this time on the Marienplatz in the heart of Munich. During this “demonstrations” PEGIDA misused the call to prayer of the muezzin for heir anti islamic propaganda. It was earsplitting loudly blown over the square during three ours a day. This gesture of hate and violence produced speechlessness with shame and rage within many people in the city. The “public dance against social coldness” could be understood as a reaction on uprising right wings movements in Germany (and worldwide) and an encouragement to resist and find a positive way out of this speechlessness. It is a “resistdance” in the manner of the Schäffler-Dancers who became role models for the performance. Their dance is originated in Munich and remembers the years of the Pest, the so-called “black death” in 1515-1517, in which people feared to go out on the street because they
worried that the disease still hadn’t been defeated. To cheer the people up and to make them come out on the streets again a cooper (Schäffler) had the idea of organizing a joyful spectacle. The famous chime of bells in the tower of Munich`s city hall at Marienplatz reminds us every day of their encouraging dance and the its sweet sounds formed the starting point of the performance at 17 p.m.
Everyone was invited to join the dance to get warm again, to dispel the “new epidemic” called social coldness!
* part of the Schäffler`s – song

The Hercules and Leo Case

Performance Collective with Karo Knote and Katrin Petroschkat, since 2015

The Hercules and Leo Case create sound arrangements on the basis of voices and language. Voice is used as tool for an artistic sound research. Through voice The Hercules and Leo Case explore the range between multi-species utterings, noises, tones, and speech and plot them with the help of custom instrument-objects into a mesmerizing tonal narrative.

Named after a New York court case which attempted to give two captive chimps, Hercules and Leo, fundamental rights, the notion of „having a voice“ and the political implications thereof are recurring themes in The Hercules and Leo Case‘s performances.

www.herculesandleocase.de

https://theherculesandleocase.bandcamp.com/album/zu-wasser-zu-land-live

Yes I can`t – Serial Public Failure

Three – weeks – Performance, 2013

„Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.“ ( Samuel Beckett )

During three weeks Maria Berauer tried hard to fail in her daily performances at the Klohäuschen in Munich. A timetable in the window of the exhibition space (a former public urinal) informed about the performances, which took place at different times (for example 4 am or 11 pm). Seventeen diverse performances and site-specific installations happened, most of them spontaneously in interaction with and reacting on the mostly coincidentally passing-by people and the local situation. Every action left traces on the building and its surrounding. At the closing event an installation of video documentation, photos, letters, notes and objects were shown on the spot.

Odem

Video Installation, 2-channel audio, loop

2015

In the beginning it is hardly understandable what the video is showing. A swarm of animal-like creatures seem to float or fly in complete darkness, constantly blowing or sucking round shiny things in front of them. Nothing changes. The undefinable drove making the sound of blowing or breathing rarely moves. Every creature blows the little golden ball at different times, in shifted rhythms until they finally blow all together. After watching the video for a while it becomes more and more clear what it really is.
It shows 31 times the same image of a human head filmed from below. A golden sphere is blown from the mouth up in the air. Gravity pulls the sphere back to the mouth and when it arrives it stays for a while until it gets blown up again. This happens continually. The heads are turned 90° to the right. In this way the law of gravity is not obvious anymore and it gets confusing and mysterious at the same time. It makes you think of timeless space, endless universe and the permanent presence of a repetitive ubiquitous breath.

(odem: traditional poetic german expression for breath)

Annotation: The video is shown in a black box, projected on a black wall so that the only light is given by the shining heads.

Triade

Video Triptych, 2-channel audio, 05 min 49 sec

2017

In this video the artist presents her own body similar to a ceremonial unveiling of an artwork by pulling a throw of blue fabric successively up in the air using a string. Since it is herself who noisily pulls the string, she holds her showing or hiding literally in her own hands. The blue fabric is lifted in rhythmic repetitions, revealing the almost naked body who constantly strives to cut a great figure before the „curtain“ falls again. Presented as a tryprich and time shifted every unveiling becomes an event and gives at the same time a critical – but winking – comment on the omnipresent compulsion of self-representation and self-dramatisation.