Aurora Kellermann studied acting and later theatre studies in Rome. She moved to Berlin in 2007, where she worked as an actress, performer, author and director on various projects both at municipal theatres and in Berlin's independent theatre scene.
Since November 2014, together with Chris Wohlrab, she has lead TATWERK | Performative Forschung (funded as a production venue since 2021) and is responsible for curating the programme, communication and artistic supervision of the projects.
She has been artistically active since 2008, until 2010 under the label AKR, since 2016 under the label DERIVAT.
DERIVAT is currently working on the transfeminist and futuristic post-pandemic saga ‘there is no place like Before’. For this project, DERIVAT received research funding as part of #takecare (Electric Girls, 2021), a research grant from the Berlin Senate (Power to the matter, 2022) and process funding as part of #takeheart (there is no place like Before - a digital time-travel, 2023).
Since 2015 she has been part of Welcome Project, a feminist formation based in Berlin and Turin.
2016 - 2021 she also edited the rehearsal space platform (Proberaumplattform) as part of the Performing Arts Programme supported by LAFT Berlin. In the same framework, she led the special programme #performingsafety together with Christin Eckart in 2020/21.
She is a co-founder and board member of nota e.V., which operates the online-based montage software of the same name.
Born in East Berlin, Chris Wohlrab has been working as a freelance production manager in the performing arts since 2012 and has since overseen a large number of productions in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Freiburg, Auschwitz, Rovigo (Italy) and elsewhere.
In 2014, he and his partner took over TATWERK | Performative Forschung - Produktionszentrum der performativen Künste, which they developed into a well-known production venue for Berlin's independent performing arts community.
From 2011 to 2013, he was co-director of the THEATERKAPELLE.
Since 2017, he has been working continuously with SPREEAGENTEN under the artistic direction of Susanne Chrudina.
Also in 2017, the collaboration with the director Malte Schlösser began.
From 2021 to 2024, he worked at the Berliner Festspiele, including venue management, assistance and organizational management of the Bundeswettbewerbe / Treffen junge Szene.
Beatrice Zanesco graduated in 2021 in Multimedia Art at the Iuav University in Venice. Her main interest lies in the connections and creative possibilities that can arise from the combination of different artistic media, especially in the fields of performance, dance and experimental music.
She has lived in Berlin since 2021, where she joined forces with the curatorial platform MMpraxis and began working in the city's independent scene.
Aru Ray Tormann is a choreographer, dance dramaturg, and curator. With an academic background in political philosophy and contemporary dance, their practice navigates the intersections of artistic and theoretical research. Aru is interested in creating artistic work in or in proximity to public and non-theatrical spaces, generating conversations between bodies, landscapes, histories, and the politics of space and community.
Aru graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts with a Master's degree in Performing Arts (2019), and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at University College Maastricht, the Netherlands, and Tecnológico de Monterrey, México, (2016).
Aru's research-focussed work has been supported by numerousu residencies (Uferstudios Berlin, HELLERAU - European Centre for the Arts, tanzhaus nrw, a. o.) and research grants (funded by the Berlin Senate, Darstellende Künste, Dachverband Tanz, a. o.).
In their artistic and organizational practice, Aru prioritizes care and works towards sustainable structures and methods in the performing arts.
Choreographic works include the site-specific audio walk »TURN – cartography of a movement« (2022) and »physical prospects« (2021+22), performed as a trio and solo.
They have co-curated festivals, conferences, and collective research laboratories, including the annual conference of the International Theatre Institute »Conflict & Care« (2023) at Theater der Welt, the research lab »performing for peers – audiences of (post)pandemic emerging professionals« (2023) commissioned by Fonds Darstellende Künste, and various formats within the frame of Celestial Bodies – a traveling platform for artistic exchange and research throughout performing arts practices.
In addition to Celestial Bodies, Aru has co-founded LIK, a collective for dramaturgy, curation, and coordination that focuses on flexible, caring, and needs-oriented process design at all levels of artistic production.