Bard College Berlin News
Guest faculty member Magdalena Emmerig provides costumes and stage design for Staatstheater Stuttgart production
Photo by Björn Klein
Eine runde Sache is based on Gardi’s two-part novel of the same name. The first part is a “dark, violent and discombobulated fairy tale” in which Goethe's Erlkönig and a German shepherd dog called Rex meet on a hunt and go on a “hellish journey through German culture.” The second part follows the 19th century Indonesian painter Raden Saleh, who travels from Java to Europe.
Emmerig explains, “In order to adapt Tomer Gardi's novel for the stage, I decided, together with Brusilovsky and video artist Florian Schaumberger, to create two very different visual worlds for the two independent parts of the novel.”
“It was great fun to design costumes for the first part with its wild, archaic, almost fairy tale-like characters and to invent quick theatrical scene changes for the stage,” she says. “In the second part, the naturalistic costumes take a back seat and give space to Schaumberger's complex video essay. An exciting contrast emerges, with both parts taking a look at the relationship between artistic work and the political and social context in which it is created.”
Emmerig is teaching the practicing arts seminar Immersive Spatial Experiences at Bard College Berlin this semester, which aims to convey an artistic exploration of architecture and an introduction to spatial design. During the semester, students learn to elaborate a conceptual approach for their own spatial setting and explore different modes of visualization, from drawing and painting to model building.
Post Date: 11-17-2025