What is the Schaudepot?
A library of performances – to browse, borrow or experience live
The Schaudepot is located in a former crafts company in the south of Stuttgart. It was founded in 2021 by the artists Melanie Mohren and Bernhard Herbordt, who, with the Schaudepot, created a model institution unique to the performing arts.
The spaces were designed by the stage designers Leonie Mohr and Hannes Hartmann. The red curtain reminds one of a theatre. A successive library of performances will gradually be created on 52 square metres. Unlike in a library, not only can you browse through the shelves or borrow something, there are also small-scale performances for one to four members of the audience. A visit can take five minutes – or five hours.
In the visual arts, show repositories are places where objects that are not permanently exhibited in a museum are stored and at the same time made accessible to the general public. Herbordt/Mohren are now trying to transfer this to the performing arts. Their Schaudepot is a research facility, archive, material depot and venue, all in one. Open to the neighborhood, as well as to international guests.
Visitors can choose from a steadily growing catalogue of performances specially developed or adapted for the Schaudepot. Here’s an overview of currently available works:
- ‘Dance Library’ by Jorge Alencar and Neto Machado (online performance)
- ‘Kleine Wunder der Prärie’ (Little wonders of the prairie) by Bureau Baubotanik (performance kit and Baubotan walking tour)
- ‚Norm ist F!ktion #1/2’ (Norm is F!ction #1/2) by NAF (Performance Kit)
- ‘Tutorial Takdir. Die Anerkennung (The recognition)’ by Ülkü Süngün (site-specific installation)
- ‘Das Festival’ by Herbordt/Mohren with Judica Albrecht and Armin Wieser (online performance)
- ‘Das Kinder-Festival’ by Herbordt/Mohren with Anja Füsti, Tina Pantisano and Matthias Engler (new music workshop with and for children between 5 and 9 years)
- ‘Das Stück (The Piece)’ by Herbordt/Mohren (audiowalk)
- ‘Das Theater’ by Herbordt/Mohren (theatre installation)
- ‘Die Bewegung (The Movement)’ by Herbordt/Mohren (Performance with two visitors)
- ‘Die Bewegung (The Movement) in German Sign Language’ by Herbordt/Mohren and Sabine Scherbel, Mirko Scheit, Tanja Lilienblum-Steck (Performance with two visitors in German sign language)
- ‘Die Gesellschaft (The Society)’ by Herbordt/Mohren (performance))
- and much more
However, you needn’t necessarily be on site to visit. The Schaudepot can also be explored online as part of a guided tour.
Follow our program on Instagram or Facebook.
Das Schaudepot (2021) from Herbordt/Mohren on Vimeo.
How do I get into the Schaudepot?
A visit is possible on site or by means of the video conferencing software Zoom. In both cases, an appointment must be made individually. Since its opening on July 4, 2021, the Schaudepot has been open every Wednesday for lunch between 12 noon and 2 pm and by appointment.
In regular format ,The Schaudepot – Special!’ new performances are presented, and lectures and neighborhood parties take place. In addition, performance workshops with children, adolescents and adults are organised. Time, jobs, books, tools and technology are shared.
The Schaudepot is also the meeting point for a vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Stuttgart’s Lehenviertel neighborhood. Depending on your preference, there is the possibility to immerse yourself in a performance or to have a discussion. Melanie Mohren and Bernhard Herbordt are on-site to greet you in the small rooms. There’s also tea, coffee and sometimes a snack.
Further information and registration at info@die-institution.org.
If you participate in a tour online, we will then send you – analog, no less! – an individual information package. We look forward to your visit!
Who’s behind it all?
- Melanie Mohren und Bernhard Herbordt (artistic direction)
- Leonie Mohr, Hannes Hartmann (Equipment, equipment, setup)
- ehrliche arbeit / Andrea Oberfeld (production management)
- Silinee Damsa-Ard, Marlis Wiedemann (research, collaboration)
- Steven Solbrig (inclusive culture mediation)
- René Liebert (programming, video, lighting)
- Roland Batroff (programming)
- Demian Bern (graphic design)
‚Das Schaudepot‘ (public storage) (2021) is a production by Herbordt/Mohren (‚The Institution‘) , in cooperation with Theater Rampe, supported by the three-year conceptual funding from the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, from the stimulus programme ‘Kunst trotz Abstand’ from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg and from the City of Stuttgart.
Since 2022 Herbordt//Mohren and ‚Das Schaudepot‘ are institutionally funded by the Central City Stuttgart.
Who are the initiators?
Melanie Mohren and Bernhard Herbordt founded ‘Die Institution’ (The Institution) in 2012 – a widely diversified art facility that works on an expanded concept of theatre and uses different formats and media for this purpose.
Their work traverses the realms between art and research, everyday life and the stage. To date, 15 internationally acclaimed performance productions as well as three publications published by Alexander Verlag Berlin have resulted from the work series. They’s always guided by the singular question: What more can an institution, a performance, an audience or a society be? The focus is on the different possibilities of institutions and how they can be thought of more permeable and solidarity-based through performative transformations. Herbordt/Mohren are currently concluding their PhD ‘Institutionen als Kunst – Kunst als Institution: Künstlerische Recherchen und performative Transformationen ( Institutions as Art – Art as Institution: Artistic research and performative transformations)’ at the Zurich University of the Arts in cooperation with the Art University Linz.
Beyond ‘Das Schaudepot’ and ‘Die Institution’, Herbordt/Mohren curate and stage discursive series of formats as well as congresses, produce radio plays and have been teaching regularly for over ten years at art colleges and universities in German-speaking countries and beyond, currently as guest professors at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and as substitute professors at the MA Performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart.
Herbordt/Mohren are founding members of the Society for Artistic Research in Germany founded in 2018 and spokespersons of the Baden-Württemberg Regional Group as well as founding members of the Alliance for Just Art and Cultural Work Baden-Württemberg founded in 2021.
