ABOUT US

By proxy is a joint project that Stefan and Johanne launched after meeting at a training course. Stefan was showing a piece in which he shaved off different pieces of hair only to stick them back on different parts of his body. At that moment, Johanne realized that performance art sparked her curiosity and that this was an opportunity to embark on a journey together.

After they both read Rob Hopkins' How To Fall in Love With The Future, it was clear that they would offer workshops together – but this quickly developed into a wide-ranging artistic collaboration.

by proxy means: on behalf of. Representing. For us, this refers to an attitude: we act as ourselves, but in the service of a cause, an idea, a question. In doing so, we not only report, but also always aim to ensure that our work has an experiential character that goes beyond the linguistic. We search for what may not yet be visible and advocate for futures that do not yet have a name.

The different backgrounds that Johanne and Stefan bring to this collaboration complement each other. Johanne has extensive theater experience and a keen sense for topics and questions that are worth exploring, while Stefan brings a curiosity for new forms, images, and gestures on stage, which makes rehearsals a real exploration.

JOHANNE HOPPSTOCK

Johanne Hoppstock is an artist, theater pedagogue, and teacher - and a committed future enthusiast, even when the present is not cooperating.

She works at the intersections of aesthetic practice, education, and the stubborn belief that collective imagination is not a pastime but a political necessity. Responsibility, she finds, tastes like coriander: unbearably intense for some, indispensable for others.

She meets her audiences, workshop participants, and collaborators with the same impulse: come along. There is more to see.

STEFAN GEBHARD

Stefan Gebhard researches and works at the intersection of art, education, and politics, and is therefore never quite finished. He is a scientist with the rare ability to think precisely while remaining grounded. His gaze is sharp, his humor even sharper.

Stefan operates at the intersection of academic and artistic practice, which is not a contradiction but rather a productive intermediate zone. With by proxy, he brings his analytical thinking to where it can be most productively disruptive: right into the middle of things.

PROJECTS

DEAR FUTURE

The future isn't here yet, but many people feel like it's already lost. To autocracies, tech bros, big money. by proxy does not give in to fatalism.

Through imagination training and guided time travel, participants are invited to create memories of the future: how does the world we want to live in look, sound, smell, taste? These impressions are shared and translated into something tangible: a picture, a postcard to your future self. In doing so, futures are rehearsed, and the agency to shape them cultivated.

Dear Future creates a temporary micro-utopia and treats imagination as what it is: a scarce resource in times of polycrisis – and one that can be trained.

Format: 60–180 min, 10–30 participants. Inspired by the work of Rob Hopkins. Booking: 

BEARING

Four performers. One wooden beam. Uninterrupted.

Tragen (Bearing) asks what it means not to describe responsibility, but to carry it — in the most literal sense, and beyond. The piece has premiered and continues to develop.

by proxy with ensemble members. For touring inquiries and further information: 

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

We started this project from the observation that we are living in a time of profound uncertainty, one in which visions of the future are frequently overshadowed by fear(s) of change, and positive images of what is to come seem far less available than dystopian scenarios. We examine how the future is described through predictions, forecasts, and scenarios and how these mechanisms have a performative effect on how we frame the future. We are interested in how images of different futures emerge and take effect, what mechanisms stabilize or constrain them, and how they can be interrogated and shifted through artistic practice. At the same time, we want to create situations that make the future experienceable as something negotiable, open, and livable.

Work in progress!