HELEN SCHOENE

Helen Schoene is a (performance) artist living and working in London. She was born in Heidelberg, Germany and grew up in small town Schriesheim nearby. Being of dual Nationality, German and British, exploring her mother country was an integral part of her childhood.

Helen obtained a BA in Dance Theatre at Fontys Dansacademie in Tilburg, The Netherlands, as part of which she received a 3-month Erasmus scholarship at Brighton University, England for the BA Dance and Visual Art. In 2005 she moved to London and in 2006 completed a Master of Arts (Performance) at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

In 2003 and 2005 Helen attended performance/installation workshops with Rona Pondick & Robert Feintuch at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria and was awarded a scholarship for 2004, where she studied with Caroline Broadhead. In 2006 and 2009 Helen worked here as assistant to Geoffrey Hendricks in the performance class The Artist As Nomad.

Helen recently joined performance company Switch as associate artist. Her piece If I See You I Might Blush (2007) is featured on the Joining the Dots Platform DVD published by the Live Art Development Agency. A photograph of the piece Dilusion (2003) appears in the catalogue Rona Pondick — Works 1986-2008, published by the International Summer Academy for Fine Art, Salzburg; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris-Salzburg and Sonnabend Gallery, New York.

Helen has worked as a dancer in various dance and puppetry productions. Most recently she performed as Medea in Medea/Medea, directed by Dylan Tighe at the Gate Theatre in London.

Since 2003 she focuses mainly on creating, developing and showing her own performance work, in which fine art practices, the physical body, site specificity and theatrical elements are interwoven. Fiction, especially Victorian thrillers, as well as tales and myths and the imagery derived from them impact heavily on her work. Performances, installations and photographs seek to make these “cues” into a tangible reality.

Helen’s most recent activities as independent artist include:

2008 — 2009	Rapunzel Party Piece, Ada Gallery and The Great Orchidaceous Travesty, Resistance Gallery, London
2008	Preparations, my site/in space 3, Performance Company Switch, Battersea Barge, London
2008	What I Wish For, Space Bursary, Chisenhale Dance Space, London
2007	If I See You I Might Blush, comission for Rules and Regs at a space, Southampton (included on Joining the Dots Platform DVD by the Live Art Development Agency)
2007	Taken, Alter Schlachthof, Kunstverein Mosbach, Germany
2007	Preparing for Miss Havisham´s Wedding, my site/in space, Switch Theatre, Bethnal Green Workingmen´s Club, London
2007	Game for 4 and Double Bass, with Freefall Performing Lab, Camden Peoples Theatre, London, England
2006	Everything changes but me/you, Gallerie KG Freiräume, Hallein, Austria
2006	Ein-Mann-Parade, Museum Théo Kerg, Schriesheim, Germany
2005	Care; commission for Care exhibition by the German State Ministry for Social Services and the German Red Cross Foundation, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Germany
2005	Met Gratis Voetschimmel !!, in collaboration with Sofia Tsolis, funded by BOT Produkties, Superstedeke, Tilburg, The Netherlands
2004	Etüde für ein Mahl im Freien, Museum Théo Kerg, Schriesheim, Germany
2003	The Red Ribbon; Lange Nacht der Museen, Forum für Kunst, Heidelberg Germany