News and Announcements
ARTICLE
In search of absence: Creation strategies in scenic works of Heiner Goebbels
Show Less
1 Department of Sound, Faculty of Arts, Universidad de Chile, Santiago,
Chile
AC, 025120013 https://doi.org/10.36922/AC025120013
Received: 19 March 2025 | Revised: 26 August 2025 | Accepted: 4 September 2025 | Published online: 26 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract
The present study examines Heiner Goebbels’ intermedial strategies in selected stage works, with particular attention to the role of absence as a central aesthetic and creative principle. From the perspective of intermedial studies, it investigates the creation strategies developed by the composer and theater director Heiner Goebbels (b. 1952, Germany) in his scenic works, and, in particular, in three of them: Landscape with Distant Relatives (2002), Eraritjaritjaka (2004), and Stifters Dinge (2007). Taking absence as an aesthetic premise, as a creative strategy that allows for the emergence of everything that is not seen, heard, or perceived at first instance, the procedures that give rise to Goebbels’ scenic realizations are examined, and how his being a composer influences his way of directing the scene, of “composing” the scene.
Keywords
Intermediality
Stage production
Aesthetics of absence
Composed theatre
Funding
This research was supported by Centro Multimedia of the Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico, through the project Estrategias de composición en las obras escénicas de Heiner Goebbels (grant no. 178, Programa de Apoyo a la Producción e Investigación en Arte y Medios, 2016).
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
References
- Goebbels H. Performance as composition. PAJ A J Perform Art. 2024;26(78):1-16. doi: 10.1162/1520281041969048
- Roesner D. Introduction: Composed theater in context. In: Matthias R, David R, editors. Composed Theater. Aaesthetics, Practices, Processes. Singapore: Intellect; 2012. p. 9-14.
- Goebbels H. Aaesthetics of Absence. Texts on theater. New York: Routledge; 2015.
- Echeñique C. Shakespeare Além do Espaco-Tempo. Uma Conversa Sobre Direitos Humanos, Nas Tragédias Tito Andrônico, Ricardo III e Macbeth. Tesis de Doctorado. Campinas: Universidad Estatal De Campinas; 2014.
- Brecht B. Escritos Sobre Teatro. Barcelona: Alba; 2015.
- Lehmann H. El Teatro Posdramático: Una Introducción. Telón de Fondo. Revista de Teoría y Crítica Teatral; 2010. Available from: https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index. php/telondefondo/article/view/9195/7981 [Last accessed on 2017 Jun 17].
- Veloza V. Heiner müller y la ruptura de la forma dramática: Rastreo por una dramaturgia de la fragmentación. Cuadernos Música. 2011;6(2):35-54.
- Müller H. El Teatro en Crisis. Entrevista con Ute Scharfenberg; 1995. Available from: https://www.nexoteatro.com/pdf/el%20teatro%20es%20crisis.pdf [Last accessed on 2025 Sep 10].
- Rancière J. The Emancipate Spectator. London: Verso; 2009.
- Barnett D. Heiner Müller vertonen. Heiner Goebbels and the music of postmodern memory. In: Alter N, Koepnick L, editors. Sound Matters. Essays on the Acoustics of Modern German Culture. New York: Berghahn; 2004. p. 217-27.
- Rojas S. Imaginar la Materia. Ensayos de Filosofía y Estética. Santiago: Arcis; 2003. Available from: https://libguides.usc. edu/ld.php?content_id=54130825
- Cage J. Defense of Satie. In: Kostelanetz R, editor. John Cage. United States: Praeger Publishers; 1970. p. 77-84.
- Goebbels H. Heiner Goebbels’ Acceptance Speech at the Ibsen Conference. Skien; 2012. Available from: https://vimeo. com/52462786 [Last accessed on 2012 Oct 30].
- Barber Ll. Cage o el silbo vulnerado (Cage or the violated whistle). Rev Arte Parte. 2002;41:26-37.
- Eisner G. An analytical approach to the scenic realization of electroacoustic music: The theatricality of lumínico. Comput Music J. 2022;46(1-2):72-81. doi: 10.1162/comj_a_00637
- Fischer-Lichte E. Estética de lo Performativo. Spain: Abada Editores; 2014.
- Rebstock M. Composed Theater: Mapping the Field. In: Matthias R, David R, editors. Composed Theater. Aaesthetics, Practices, Processes. Bristol: Intellect; 2012. p. 17-51.
- Goebbels H. ‘It’s all part of one concern’: A ‘keynote’ to composition as staging. In: Matthias R, David R, editors. Composed Theater. Aaesthetics, Practices, Processes. Bristol: Intellect; 2012. p. 111-120.
- Cruz R. Medio. In: González Aktories S, Cruz R, García M, eds. Vocabulario crítico para los estudios intermediales: Hacia el estudio de las literaturas extendida. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; 2022: 23-38.
- Clüver C. Intermediality and interarts studies. In: Arvinson J, Askander M, Bruhn J, Führer H, editors. Changing Borders: Contemporary Positions in Intermediality. Sweden: Intermedia Studies Press; 2007. p. 19-37.
- Kent D. “Resonancias” de la promesa: “Ecos” y “reverberaciones” del don giovanni. In: Un Estudio de los Desplazamientos de la Imagen Intermedial. Tesis de Doctorado. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; 2016.
- Agamben G. El Fuego y el Relato. Madrid: Sexto Piso; 2016. p.
- Wolf W. The Musicalization of Fiction. A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality. Netherlands: Rodopi; 1999.
- Roesner D. Musicality in Theater. Music as Model, Method and Metaphor in Theater-Making. London: Routledge; 2014.