Begin Suddenly in Splendour. Rose English: Performance, Presence, Spectacle

The Museum der Moderne Salzburg is presenting the first comprehensive exhibition in the German-speaking world of works by the British artist Rose English. Born in 1950 in Hereford, English developed her unique working methods in the UK in the midst of the conceptual art, dance and feminist scenes of the 1970s. Today, she is one of the most influential performance artists. Her extraordinary, interdisciplinary oeuvre combines elements of theater, circus and opera in order to explore themes of gender politics, the identity of the performer and the metaphysics of presence—the very nature of being a performer.

This exhibition will use multimedia installations to provide an insight into English’s unique practice. Her early involvement with ballet and dressage, whose common roots lie in the Baroque, led to English developing her famous feminist dance performance Quadrille (1975) and her stage performance with a horse My Mathematics (1992). Three of her major theater productions will be shown in public for the first-ever time in the form of a new site-specific installation.

A specially commissioned performance program will accompany this exhibition, with four performances by younger international artists whose work is related to English’s artistic practice.

A bilingual publication will accompany the exhibition.