David Weber-Krebs / Maximilian Haas

BALTHAZAR is a longterm artistic research project by David Weber-Krebs (director) and Maximilian Haas (dramaturgy/theory) that explores our cultural relationship with animals using the means of theater. The performances show an encounter of one animal and a group of human performers on a stage. A donkey – Balthazar – is the protagonist, the centre of the action.

The project consists of a series of three performance productions and a book. Referring to the traditional division of the performing arts between theater, dance, and opera, each performance concentrates on a specific theatrical means: narration, choreography, and sound. And each of them has a different conceptual focus derived from the works of the three philosophers that shaped the contemporary reflection on the animal most prominently: Gilles Deleuze, Donna Haraway and Jacques Derrida. Visual artist Ines Lechleitner keeps records on the different project phases and creates an artist’s book that brings together the experiences and outcomes of those artistic experiments with the philosophical ideas.