Simon Niemann

PhD Project "Mediation of performance art as aesthetic practice"

In his research project entitled "Mediation of Performance Art as Aesthetic Practice," Simon Niemann dealt with the specific characteristics of performance art from the point of view of mediation. In doing so, mediation was not treated as a secondary process that follows the artistic product, but was itself conceived as an aesthetic practice. Under the central question, which demands Performance Art places on a new concept of mediation, a system was to be developed that makes it possible to make Performance Art accessible to children, young people and adults as a specific form of public discourse with its own artistic quality.

 

About

Simon Niemann is a trained theatre teacher and studied theatre and cultural studies. Since 2010 he has been working as a freelance theatre teacher and arts mediator. He also has realized various directing and performance projects as well as theater pedagogical workshops and projects with children, young people and adults. In this role, he worked at the Theater für Niedersachsen in the 15/16 season and then for three years at the municipal theater in Osnabrück. In 2020, together with Sophia Grüdelbach, he founded the Vermittlungs*netzwerk as a subgroup to the nationwide Ensemble Network. In addition to his work as a mediator, Simon Niemann is active as a performance artist in cooperation with different institutions and projects such as the Kunsthalle Osnabrück or the Performance Art Studies (PAS). In 2021 he was invited to the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome as a practice fellow. Since summer 2019, Simon Niemann is doing his PhD at the University of Hildesheim in the field of "Mediation of performance art as aesthetic practice". 

 

Research

- Member of the Research college „Aesthetic Learning“ of the University of Paderborn

- Member of ERA: early research academics / London

- Member of the working group „critical theater pedagogy“

 - 2021: Guest Lecturer at the „Baltic Film, Media and Arts School“ Tallinn

- 2022: Didrik-Pining Fellow at the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC)

 

Lectures:

- 2022: „From visible sounds to moving bodies. The role of embodied knowledge in arts education“ (In Zusammenarbeit mit Gerhard Lock und Marit Mõ istlik-Tamm) auf der weltweiten Konferenz der "International society of music education"

- 2022: „Teach/Educate/Mediate Performance Art between the terms“ Performance Department vom School of the art institute in Chicago

- 2022: „Vermittlung als Ästhetische Praxis“ im Forschungskolleg „Ästhetisches Lernen“ der Universität Paderborn

-  2021: „Creativity and collaboration at the Black Mountain College“ an der „Baltic Film, Media and Arts School“ in Tallinn

 

Artistic Practice

- Founding member of the Vermittlungs*netzwerk (Ensemble Network)

- 2021: Practice scholarship of the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome

- Artistic work (selection): www.vimeo.com/user133942877 

 

Contributions and Publications:

"Arts in the Making" An interview with Simon Niemann about his research in the research training group "Aesthetic Practice" in the journal DIE RELATION Issue #7 2021 (p.68ff.).

The entire issue for download as pdf is available here. (In German)

 

Publications:

2023: „The Public Space Between Art and Political Activism“, in: Space, Place and Locus: Mapping the New Europe”, Oxford: Peter Lang
(accepted for publication).

2023: „Stay unsettled – Üben in pandemischen Zeiten“, in: Jens Roselt/Ekaterina Trachsel (Hg.), Üben üben, Paderborn: Brill/Fink
(accepted for publication).

 

Further publications:

2021: „Künste im Werden“. Interview mit Simon Niemann über seine Forschung im Graduiertenkolleg „Ästhetische Praxis“, in Die Relation. Journal der Universität Hildesheim #7, 68–71.

2021: „Kann Vermittlung auch Kunst sein?“ Interview mit Simon Niemann im Blog „SuperPopp“ zur Erforschung visueller Kultur
(www.superpopp.de).