Über Wasser bleiben
Performance Talk by Farzane Vaziritabar and Dr. Reinhard Spieler
How do artists stay afloat? The performance talk Über Wasser Bleiben (Stay Afloat) creates a shared space for conversation, response, and reflection. It takes the history of the Kestner Gesellschaft—a former swimming pool—as its starting point to reflect on the conditions of artistic existence today. “Staying afloat” becomes a metaphor for visibility, continuity, and the struggle to survive as an artist under today’s conditions.
The work unfolds as a performative dialogue between the artist Farzane Vaziritabar and the director of the Sprengel Museum Hannover, Dr. Reinhard Spieler, through language, the body, and inflatable lifebuoys that interlock. Over the course of the performance, conversation, writing, and physical presence intertwine to form a situational practice. Participants are invited to write their thoughts and brief notes directly on the life rings, which then coalesce into a collective surface of voices and reactions.
Duration: approx. 60–90 minutes, depending on participation
Über Wasser Bleiben is part of the Colorful Threads project, which was awarded the Hannes Malte Mahler – it is art® Art Prize.
Farzane Vaziritabar (born in 1987 in Yazd, Iran) studied painting in Yazd, sculpture in Tehran, and art history at the master’s level. In 2021, she completed the master’s program Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at the Bauhaus University Weimar. Since then, she has been living and working in Germany as an interdisciplinary artist in media such as drawing, installation, sculpture, performance, and video. In her work, she explores narrative structures, identity, and gender, as well as personal and shared experiences. She often combines subtle irony with a critical view of society and frequently creates participatory works in public spaces. Her work has been exhibited at venues including the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, the National Roman Museum—Palazzo Altemps in Rome, and the European Cartoon Center in Belgium. She has received numerous awards and fellowships.