Daniel Aschwanden (†)

Daniel Aschwanden (January 21st, 1959 - July 8th, 2021) was a Swiss performer, choreographer, director, curator who lived and worked in Vienna. With the festival “Tanzsprache” he founded the first festival of the independent scene in Vienna. In the context of the project „Bilderwerfer“ he worked with disabled and non-disabled dancers. Together with the group he received the state award of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Art for innovative and trend-setting achievements in this field. In the following years, his work shifted to questions of (performing) art in public space with participatory approaches, but also to questions about the role of art in urban development processes. Daniel Aschwanden supported the profile development of the class „Social Design – Art as Urban Innovation“ at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, designed the field of performance in the Department of Art and Communicative Practice and most recently played a key role in setting up the Applied Performance Lab (APL). For his longstanding services, the City Councilor for Culture suggested Aschwanden for a honoring of the city of Vienna. However, the award could not take place due to the corona.

On July 8th, 2021 Daniel Aschwanden left us much too early. He has had a decisive influence on the independent scene in Vienna for decades – including the brut programme. We are grateful to him for his visions, his energy and his impulses. His last project Deep Dreaming Creatures, on which he worked together with Lucie Strecker, remained unfinished and will be performed posthumously and in memory of him.

Works at brut

• Deep Dreaming Creatures. Handle with Care in memory of Daniel Aschwanden (Lucie Strecker 2021)
• Applied Microperformativity (2018)
• DOG_men. Neue Körper, Mythen & die Stadt (2017)