Balkan Erotic Epic – Creative Team

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

Artist / Director / Concept / Design

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade in the 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance as a visual art form. She created some of the most important early works in this practice, including Rhythm 0 (1974), in which she offered herself as an object of experimentation for the audience. Her performances pushed the boundaries of self-discovery and marked her first engagements with time, stillness, energy, pain and the heightened consciousness generated by long durational performance. In 2012, she founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art, that focuses on performance, long durational works and the use of the ‘Abramović Method’. Abramović was one of the first performance artists to be formally accepted by the institutional museum world. In 2024, Abramović opened her first solo exhibition in China, Transforming Energy, at the Modern Art Museum, Shanghai. In 2023, she was the first female artist to host a major solo exhibition in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Her first European retrospective The Cleaner was presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden (2017), followed by presentations in Denmark, Norway, Germany and Poland, concluding at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Serbia (2019). In 2010, Abramović had her first major US retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in The Artist Is Present at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Abramović is the recipient of numerous awards including the Golden Lion for Best Artist for her performance of Balkan Baroque at the Venice Biennale, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commander (France), and the Gold Medal for Merit (Serbia). In 2014, Abramović was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine.

GEORGINE MARIA-MAGDALENA BALK

Associate Director

Georgine Maria-Magdalena Balk was born in Munich. There, she completed her studies in theatre, music and communications at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität with a Magister Artium. In tandem with her studies, she worked at Bayerischer Rundfunk and ZDF. After freelancing with David Alden and Deborah Warner and co-directing Hänsel and Gretel with Jürgen Rose at the Cologne Opera, she was engaged by the Bavarian State Opera in 2008. It was there in her role as Spielleiterin that she collaborated with, and learned from, artists, stage designers and theatre and opera directors such as Marina Abramović, Lotte de Beer, Frank Castorf, Richard Jones, Andreas Kriegenburg, Hans Neuenfels, Amélie Niermeyer and Dmitri Tcherniakov, to name but a few. Independently and in a recreative process, she rehearsed numerous revivals with artists such as Elina Garanča, Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann. At the Bavarian State Opera’s guest performances in Tokyo, she directed Lohengrin, Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Zauberflöte. She staged the work Empowerment – a musical performance in and with the exhibition Utrecht, Caravaggio and Europe at the Bavarian State Opera in collaboration with the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. She was responsible for the revivals of Otello at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Evita, Jenůfa and Rigoletto at the Bühnen Bern, among others. Following the presentation of Marina Abramović’s7 Deaths of Maria Callas in London at the ENO, this is her debut in Manchester.

NABIL ELDERKIN

Film Director

Nabil Elderkin is an award-winning film and music video director, and photographer. His client list spans from Kendrick Lamar and Dua Lipa to Bon Iver and Kanye West, working with Nicki Minaj, Nas, Black Eyed Peas, James Blake, The Weeknd, Arctic Monkeys and John Legend, among many more, along the way. His work has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone and MTV and he has collaborated with fashion personalities such as designer Jeremy Scott and model Heidi Klum. Elderkin’s debut feature was the award-winning documentary film Bouncing Cats.

BLENARD AZIZAJ

Choreographer

Blenard Azizaj is an Albanian choreographer and dance performer whose work is rooted in contemporary dance and shaped by themes of identity, belonging, and transformation. Born in Albania to parents who were traditional folk dancers, Blenard grew up surrounded by rhythm and movement. At 18, he moved to Greece to study at the National School of Dance (KSOT) in Athens, where he graduated in dance pedagogy and choreography.

He has performed and collaborated with leading companies across Europe, including Sasha Waltz & Guests (Berlin), Akram Khan Company (London), Compagnie Linga (Lausanne), the Hellenic Dance Company (Athens), and StepText Dance Project (Bremen).

Blenard’s stage career includes major productions such as iTMOi (In the Mind of Igor) with Akram Khan Company, which toured worldwide, as well as numerous creations by Sasha Waltz, including Romeo and Juliet, Sacre, Zuhören: Continu, Figure Humaine, Unruhe, Rauschen, and Symphonie with the Staatsballett Berlin. His performances have brought him to renowned theatres and festivals across the globe. As a creator, Blenard’s choreographic voice blends physical precision with emotional depth, delving into the complexities of the human condition.

Recent works (2025): Mbi Fjalë — National Experimental Theatre of Albania; Balkan Express — Theater Osnabrück ; TERRA — Area Jeune Ballet, Geneva.

Selected previous works: Ukiyo (2020–2021); Gjurmet — Solo performance in dialogue with Anri Sala’s exhibition, Kunsthaus Bregenz (2021); The Great Migration — Volkstheater Rostock (2020); Human — Amsterdam University of the Arts (2018); In The Beginning — Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre (2018); Sacred Scars — Vorarlberg, Austria (2017); Walls — Area Jeune Ballet (2017), a work that toured internationally for over seven years.

Earlier commissions include NoBody’s Land, Fleeting Feathers, Gjurmët, A Tear and A Smile, Climax, kUlmi, The Dawn of Time, and Escaping to Return.

Alongside his choreographic projects, Blenard teaches his distinctive “dance dialect” internationally in companies, fine arts academies, and studios, sharing his artistic approach with the next generation of dancers. In 2025, he was invited by world-renowned artist Marina Abramović to collaborate as choreographer and performer on one of the most significant projects of her career, Balkan Erotic Epic, at Aviva Studios in Manchester.

BILLY ZHAO

Durational Performance Director

Billy Zhao is a writer, researcher, and performance curator based in New York. Since 2013, he has been a collaborator at the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), where he currently serves as a curator working on numerous international exhibitions. He was the teaching assistant to Marina Abramović and the first appointed Pina Bausch Professorship (2022–2023) at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. In 2019, he was a participating artist in Adelita Husni-Bey’s The Council, which is currently in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He earned a BA in Art History and Studio Art from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, New York.

MARKO NIKODIJEVIĆ

Composer

Marko Nikodijević, born in Yugoslavia in 1980, studied composition in Belgrade with Srđan Hofman. Following his education in Serbia, he undertook advanced studies with Marco Stroppa in Stuttgart. Nikodijević then settled in Germany, receiving a slew of artist residences, composition commissions and international engagements. Under the deep and lasting influence of techno, and a decade-long fascination with fractals, he lets geometrical structures and digital technologies play a major role in his music. Following simple and strict compositional procedures, using computer algorithms, sampling widely throughout musical history, borrowing from electronic dance music and folk music, using live electronics and opulent orchestral shine, he creates psychedelic worlds in which technical refinement and sentimentality combine to create a shattering impact. Besides composing concert music, Nikodijević produces electronica with Luka Kozlovački.

Anna Schöttl

Set Designer

Anna Schöttl studied Stage and Costume Design at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, graduating with distinction in 2016. During a semester abroad at Wimbledon College of Arts in London, she specialised in production design and gained early practical experience at the Salzburg Festival in the field of opera.

From 2016 on she worked for three years as a stage design assistant at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. There, she developed in the season 2020/2021 the stage design with Marina Abramović for her opera project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas and collaborated with British sculptor Phyllida Barlow on Mozart’s Idomeneo (2021/22).

Subsequent engagements led her to numerous theatres across Europe. At the National Opera Lviv in Ukraine, she was responsible for both stage and costume design for Sokol//Alcide (2021). She returned there at the end of 2022 for the world premier of the opera Strashna Pomsta, which premiered during the war. Both Ukrainian productions were directed by Andreas Weirich.

At Theater Bielefeld, she designed the stage sets for Dunkel ist die Nacht, Rigoletto! (2020/21) and Egmont (2021/22), both directed by Nadja Loschky. In the 2022/23 season, she created the stage design for Sycorax at Bühnen Bern directed by Giulia Giammona. In 2023/24, she returned to Theater Bielefeld to design both stage and costumes for the German premiere of Anthropocene – Die Frau aus dem Eis, directed by Maaike van Langen, as well as the stage design for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Nadja Loschky.

Further projects in the 2024/25 season include stage designs for Maria de Buenos Aires at the Vienna Chamber Opera, the world premiere of The Voice of the Mermaid at Theater Erfurt, Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Theater Chemnitz, and Die Bajadere at Staatsoperette Dresden. Most recently, she designed both stage and costumes for Madama Butterfly at Theater Regensburg – all directed by Juana Inés Cano Restrepo.

LUKA KOZLOVAČKI

Composer / Sound Designer

Luka Kozlovački is a composer, performer and sound designer from Zrenjanin, Serbia. He began his musical training studying piano and latermoved into electronic and computer music. He studied computer music at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in Germany and Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He is currently continuing his studies in computer music at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) in Graz, Austria. His work includes live electronic performance, sound design and composition, ranging from improvised music and musique concrète to club-oriented electronic sets. He performs solo and in collaboration with other artists and ensembles. As a sound designer, he has worked on several opera productions, including 7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Marko Nikodijević and Marina Abramović. This production has been staged at venues such as the English National Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Greek National Opera. He has also presented work at venues such as Kampnagel in Hamburg, Cité de la Musique and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, TonhalleZürich, Under Bron in Stockholm and Drugstore in Belgrade. Kozlovački regularly collaborates with composer Marko Nikodijević in live electronic settings, including performances at Villa Massimo in Rome and other festivals and contemporary music events.

URS SCHÖNEBAUM

Lighting Designer

After completing a photography apprenticeship in Munich, Urs Schönebaum worked with Max Keller as a part of the lighting department of Münchner Kammerspiele. In 1998, he started working as an assistant stage director for productions at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Lincoln Center and Münchner Kammerspiele. Then in 2000, he took up work as a lighting designer for opera, theatre, dance, art installations and performances. He worked on over 200 productions at major theatres, collaborating with directors, artists and groups including Thomas Ostermeier, La Fura dels Baus, Sasha Waltz, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Michael Haneke, Pierre Audi, Claus Guth, Laurent Pelly, Barbara Lluch and Barrie Kosky. He was also a long-term collaborator of Robert Wilson. Schönebaum’s work also includes lighting designs for art projects with Vanessa Beecroft, Anselm Kiefer, Dan Graham, Taryn Simon, Soundwalk Collective, William Kentridge, Anne Imhof and Marina Abramović. Since 2012, he has worked also as a set designer and director. He designed and directed the operas Jetzt, What Next? and Happy Happy for the Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier. He directed and designed the second act of the The Valkyrie at Staatsoper Stuttgart. His set and lighting designs include Bomarzo at Teatro Real, Aus Licht at Holland Festival, L’Apocalypse Arabe and Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria at Festival d’Aix en Provence, Linzer Klangwolke 22 in Linz, Inside Light at the Park Avenue Armory, Bastarda at La Monnaie Brussels and La Regenta at the Matadero Madrid.

ROKSANDA ILINČIĆ

Costume Designer

Originally from Serbia, Roksanda Ilinčić studied Architecture and Applied Arts at the University of Belgrade before moving to London, where she graduated from Central Saint Martins with an MA in Womenswear. She started her brand ROKSANDA in 2005, which has evolved an unmistakable woman-centered design aesthetic. Ilinčić creates pieces that reveal a woman’s personality while providing a sense of shelter and refuge, and that always seeking to challenge the perceptions of traditional beauty. Today, standout colour blocking, architectural shapes, modern, distinctive cuts, innovative use of fabrics and a dedicated focus on craftsmanship define ROKSANDA’s signature ready-to-wear and accessories. A prolific member of the contemporary art community, Ilinčić’s participation in the art world has led to landmark collaborations with organisations such as the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and Studio Voltaire. Championing a multidisciplinary approach to her work, Ilinčić merges the boundaries between the differing creative disciplines of art, dance and fashion, which can be seen in her collaborations with the artists Rana Begum, Troika, Caroline Denervaud, David Adjaye and Diébédo Francis Kéré, to name a few. Ilinčić’s designs have also featured as part of exhibitions at The Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Museum and her stand-alone exhibition The Poetry of Colour in Belgrade, which supported the Schools of Life children’s charity – another cause close to her heart. Ilinčić has received multiple awards and nominations for her work, including the award for Red Carpet Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, Designer of The Year at the Elle Style Awards and Businesswoman of the Year at Harper’s Bazaar UK’s Women of the Year Awards. She is listed in the Business of Fashion 500, a global index of the most important people shaping the fashion industry, and she is a recipient of MBE honours from King Charles.

SONIA ALCÓN

Animation

Sonia Alcón was born and grew up in the south of Spain. She moved to London and graduated in Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins. She was recruited by Philippe Starck and moved to Paris, working with him directly on illustration and design across the full range of his creative output. Returning to London, she founded the design studio Foreign Office with two other colleagues from Central Saint Martins, co-working as a director, creative, designer and illustrator for short form content, film and advertising with clients including the BBC, MTV and Channel 4. Together with her team, she grew the creative agency over a period of 16 years. Film highlights included title-sequences for four of the Harry Potter films and Mrs Henderson Presents, directed by Stephen Frears. Alcón created and directed media content for the Oscar nominated feature film Children of Men for director Alfonso Cuarón, as well as the animation for the film The Shock Doctrine, a companion to the book by Naomi Klein, which was officially selected for the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. She has won a number of awards, including a BAFTA for directing a Children Environmental Awareness short film for Nickelodeon. More recently, Alcón has written and illustrated two children’s books, One in 1000 and Two in 2000 (now translated into nine languages), raising awareness and helping families whose children are born with club foot across the world. She currently works as a creative, designer and illustrator in London.

FREDRIK NORDBECK

Animation

Born in Sweden in 1968, Fredrik Nordbeck started his career as a touring musician, playing keyboards all over Europe. He worked as a newspaper illustrator and on layout for five years, then in 1994 moved to London to attend design college. In 1998, he founded Foreign Office Design together with Sonia Alcón and Matteo Manzini, working mainly for the UK film industry. In 2016 he relocated to Stockholm, Sweden and continued a distinguished career in moving image, carrying on his love story with film title sequence design.

MARCO ANELLI

Photography

After specialising in darkroom photography in Paris, Marco Anelli, born in Rome in 1968, began working on photographic projects that evolve over time. His themes and subjects include sculpture and architecture (L’Ombra e La Luce, Silvana 1999; All’Ombra del Duomo, Contrasto 2010), sport (Il Calcio, Motta 2002; Pallacorda, Skira 2004) and classical music (The Gestures of the Spirit, Peliti 2011). In 2010, he carried out a project during Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, taking portraits of the 1,545 visitors who participated in the performance (Portraits in the presence of Marina Abramović, Damiani 2010). From 2014 to 2017 he documented the construction of Magazzino Italian Art, a museum devoted to postwar and contemporary Italian art in Cold Spring, New York. The photographs were published in Building Magazzino (Rizzoli 2017). In 2018, Anelli began First American Portrait, a series of portraits capturing new American citizens immediately after their participation in the United States Oath Ceremony, revealing the diversity of today’s American immigrant population. In his book Artist Studios New York (Damiani, 2020), the result of a nine-year-long project, Anelli explores the character of the artist and their work through the intimate lens of their studio, leading the viewer into the creative space of internationally renowned artists. TINO, Nivola in America (Silvana Editoriale, 2021) is Anelli’s latest book, highlighting Costantino Nivola’s public sculptures across New York and the US, and offering a deeper insight into the Italian-American artist’s work. Marco Anelli lives and works in New York City.

SVETLANA SPAJIĆ

Creative Consultant / Singer

Svetlana Spajić, born in Loznica in 1971, is a Belgrade-based traditional performer, composer and lyricist, internationally renowned for researching, performing and teaching the work of Serbian and Balkan singing. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology, Department of the English Language and Literature (MA) at the University of Belgrade in 1998, and from the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Post-Graduate Level in 2009. She is a member of the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia. Spajić’s expertise focuses on the study of microtonal singing, as well as the unique vocal techniques, functions and versification of ancient songs. Her research has taken her on journeys through the Balkans for more than 30 years, learning directly from the best village singers of the oldest generations. She has built a distinctive, exclusive repertoire of ancient traditional forms. Her performances have taken place in prestigious concert halls and institutions such as The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Wiener Konzerthaus, National Concert Hall, Taipei, and others. Spajić has delivered over 100 lectures and workshops across the country and abroad, mainly teaching young professionals through long-term collaborations with institutions like the DROM Academy for the oral tradition and modal music in France and the Sibelius Academy in Finland, among others.

ALEKSANDAR TIMOTIĆ

Creative Consultant / Singer

Aleksandar Timotić is an acclaimed countertenor and performing artist whose distinctive alto-toned voice encompasses repertoire from the Baroque to the contemporary. A graduate of the prestigious Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, where he studied under Martin Wölfel, he has established himself on prominent international opera stages. His musical journey began in Niš, Serbia, where he studied violin and solo singing. Twice denied admission to the local music academy, he pursued studies abroad in Luhansk, Ukraine with coloratura soprano Julietta Yakubovych, and very quickly made his debut with Martin Palmeri’s Misa a Buenos Aires, performed with the Belgorod Philharmonic. In Germany, Timotić’s career developed rapidly. He sang Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Folkwang University, followed by his Baroque debut as Alessandro in Handel’s Tolomeo at Theater Lübeck and an appearance at the Bavarian State Opera in Shostakovich’s The Nose. He recently made his debut at Kassel State Theater as Trinculo in Thomas Adès’ The Tempest, and in the upcoming season he will return to the role of Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Theater Münster. Alongside opera, Timotić is actively engaged in performance art. Under the mentorship of MarinaAbramović, he created Are You Hungry?, a participatory work combining Balkan folk traditions, communal rituals and live performance.

DRAGANA JOVANOVIĆ

Creative Consultant / Singer

Dragana Jovanović is a distinguished Serbian conductor and vocal coach whose work has continuously shaped the development of choral music and music education in Serbia and across the Balkans. She serves as an Associate Professor of Choral Singing and Conducting at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and her artistic influence is most notably recognised through her leadership of the Collegium Musicum women’s choir – one of the most prominent ensembles in the region. Founded in 1971, the choir has been a regular participant in the most significant regional events, an enduring source of inspiration for numerous contemporary composers – many of whom have dedicated works to the ensemble – and has undertaken concert tours in over 40 countries worldwide. Over the past two decades, Jovanović has guided the choir towards a more exploratory approach to vocal and vocal-instrumental performance, with a particular focus on the voice as a fundamental artistic element and its potential to interact with other artistic disciplines through various site-specific projects. She is the author of several multimedia projects, workshops, academic papers and books in the field of choral and conducting interpretation. Her conducting engagements have included the Orchestra of the Ministry of the Interior of Serbia, the Mixed Choir of Radio Television of Serbia, the Mixed Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and the Academic Choir Obilić of the Branko Krsmanović Cultural and Artistic Society. She is also a regular collaborator with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Jovanović has received numerous accolades for her work, and since 2024 she has served as the Artistic Director of the Tivat Music Festival in Montenegro.

ELKE LUYTEN

Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role

Elke Luyten (she/they), born in Belgium in 1974, navigates through the fields of experimental theatre, conceptual dance, performance art, video and TV, often working across disciplines and in collaboration with others. The main focus of their work is creative transgressive metaphor, exploring the roles of perception, consciousness, ethics and aesthetics. Additionally, they specialise in choreography and movement coaching, lending expertise in the creation and portrayal of ritual, horror, abjection, religiosity and the supernatural, as well as the study and execution of hyperstylisation of quotidian movement. To that end, they have started a new series called Living Room Dances. The first performance happened in their home in Newburgh in 2024. Luyten often works and performs for other artists. In 2003, they founded Zus Performance together with Kira Alker. In 2023 they performed Marina Abramović’s The House with the Ocean View at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, UK. In 2022, Zus created a language of movement for the HBO Max pilot of the series Dune: The Sisterhood. In 2021, they worked with American comedian Adam Sandler on his film Spaceman. Zus created the choreography for Sibyl Kempson’s 12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2017 and 2018. In 2015, Zus choreographed David Bowie’s short film Blackstar. Additionally, Luyten performed in Blackstar and again in Bowie’s final music video, Lazarus. They also performed in Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which toured internationally from 2011-2013. In 2010, Luyten re-performed in several pieces at the exhibition Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present at MoMA in New York.

MARIA STAMENKOVIĆ HERRANZ (MSH)

Performance Artist / Co-Creator of the Role

Maria Stamenković Herranz (MSH) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work merges performance, visual art, and embodied research. She investigates how ephemeral actions leave lasting traces in matter and collective memory, positioning performance as a tool for social transformation and a bridge between history, symbolisms and spirituality. Through sculptural objects – such as the bricks in This Mortal House Building 1 (2020) and This Mortal House Building 2 (2022) – she challenges the boundary between action and object, inviting active audience engagement with an evolving narrative. Her projects have been exhibited internationally in museums, theatres and biennials, including the Benaki Museum (Athens, 2016), Sakıp Sabancı Museum (Istanbul, 2020), Bangkok Art Biennale (2021), Martch Art Project (Istanbul, 2022), Paris Photo (2023), and Librairie du Palais during the Les Rencontres d’Arles (2024). In 2025, she presented The Painted Heron, commissioned by the Joseph Beuys Foundation in collaboration with the Marina Abramović Institute, at Museum Schloss Moyland. She is currently preparing for OFFSCREEN at the Chapelle Saint-Louis-de-la-Salpêtrière in Paris with This Mortal House Building 3 for 2025.

ROWAN SCHRATZBERGER

Assistant Choreographer

Rowan Schratzberger is an Australian freelance dancer and emerging choreographer based in Europe. He completed an apprenticeship with Ballet Avignon and graduated with a Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel (DNSP) from the Pôle National Supérieur de Danse Rosella Hightower, in collaboration with Ballet Preljocaj and Ballet National de Marseille. Prior to this, he trained in the Senior and Pre-Professional Programs at Queensland Ballet Academy (Australia) and completed a secondment with the Australasian Dance Collective. Schratzberger has performed with Ballet Avignon (France, 2023–2024), in Schwanensee at the Schlossfestspiele Ettlingen (Germany, 2023), and with Queensland Ballet (Australia, 2021). His repertoire includes works by KOR’SIA (Olympiad), Emilio Calcagno (D’un Matin de Printemps, Storm), Ilya Jivoy (Carmina Burana), Mario Schröder (Chaplin), Kenneth MacMillan (Romeo and Juliet, Concerto), and Konstantin Koval (FIFA International Closing Ceremony Qatar, Global Champions Arabians Tour – London Closing Ceremony). As a freelance artist, Schratzberger is currently part of the ACEAC Emerging Choreographer Incubator Program based in Normandy, France, and collaborates closely with world renowned choreographer Blenard Azizaj as his assistant. He has assisted Blenard Azizaj on Balkan Express with Theater Osnabrück and on the creation of Mbi Fjalë in Tirana, Albania, a project supported by the Ministry of Culture of Albania in partnership with the Albanian Opera and Theatre Experimental.

HELENE SCHÖNEBAUM

Assistant Set Designer

Helene Schönebaum, born in Munich in 2001, studied Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. Early in her education she attended attended a high school with a focus on music and arts, building a foundation that continues to shape her studies today. During her bachelor’s degree in Architecture, she studied under Florian Nagler and Stephen Bates, and collaborated on art projects under Uta Graff. She completed her thesis in 2024 at the MacIver-Ek Chevroulet studio. Alongside her studies, Schönebaum worked in interior design, further linking her artistic practice with spatial concepts. She then joined Herzog & de Meuron in Basel, Switzerland, where she gained a year of professional experience on international projects from 2024 to 2025. As Assistant Set Designer for Marina Abramović’s Balkan Erotic Epic, Helene applies her architectural background to the creation of spatial and artistic environments for Anna Schöttl.

TIGGER BLAIZE

Intimacy Coordinator

Tigger Blaize is an actor and intimacy coordinator from Guernsey, trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and working in theatre, TV, film and audio. Recent intimacy coordination work includes What It Feels Like for a Girl (BBC Three), Sex Education (Netflix), FBI: International (CBS), Changing Ends (ITV), The White Factory (Marylebone Theatre), The Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime), Jules and Jim (Jermyn Street Theatre), We Were the Lucky Ones (Disney), and Grace (ITV). Tigger is also a ski instructor, an LGBT+ Consultant, and a baker with a pavement shop called CAKE on the hEdge – just to keep life interesting…

Shanti Freed

Costume Collaboration and Supervisor

Shanti Freed is a London based interdisciplinary theatrical designer with roots in contemporary dance and performance art. She particularly enjoys cross art form collaborations and experimenting with unusual materials.

Her past designs for dance have included costumes for Claire Cunningham’s acclaimed Thank you very much (MIF19) and 12 Candoco Dance co, Nigel Charnock’s Still for Candoco. Untitled for Emilyn Claid featuring choreography by Heidi Rustgaard and Florence Peake. Within the world of Performance art, she has worked with Kira O’Reilly and in 2024 she costumed 28 members of the Transmasc community for Duckie’s Transdaddy, an interactive performance art club event by Duckie (London), and costume designed/wardrobe supervised Emilyn Claid’s The Trembling Forest, “a queer live art ballet” (2025) as part of Ceremony: a festival of performance (Future Ritual, London).

Alongside her work as a designer, she has wardrobe supervised many projects for Manchester International Festival 2007 to 2023 including Il Tempo del Postino (2007), Marina Abramović Presents at the Whitworth (2009), Robert Wilson's The Life and Death of Marina Abramović (2011 and touring) , Robert Wilson’s The Old Women, and installed the inaugural Yayoi Kusama exhibition, putting to use her 25+ years as a Luminarium manager touring large scale interactive inflatable arts sculptures for artist Alan Parkinson’s Architects of Air.