Ira Brand
Maker
Ira Brand (DE/UK/NL) is artist, writer, performance-maker and curator. She makes interdisciplinary live performances: solo stage shows, one-on-one pieces, duets or participatory work. She sets off from personal stating points as a means of addressing broader social, political and formal issues. A contemporary, frequently occurring theme in her work is power and how this is felt and exercised – in particular through language, gender and desire.
Biography
In her work, Ira seeks to create a space within which we are able to recognise the incongruities and inconsistencies of modern life that are sometimes difficult to pin down. She wishes to open up spaces in which we can feel intensely and think critically; spaces of both openness and discipline. And she wants to create spaces for pleasure. The relationship with the audience is a core ingredient of all her work; she makes use of text, video, biography and autobiography, found materials, research and interview processes alongside physical working practices. She is interested in achieving particular physical states, the looseness and the focus that can be achieved through exhaustion, obstacles or a loss of control.
Ira Brand has been affiliated to Frascati Producties since 2022. During Fraslab (Frascati Producties, 2020) she presented her studies Commitment Phobe, after which she later developed the performance like the party has been cancelled, which premièred as a coproduction with Festival Cement in March 2022. Brand’s following production with Frascati Producties, also named Commitment Phobe, launched in spring 2023.
In May 2025, Ira's RUNNER will be presented; a performance about running and exhaustion. It explores the connection between the contradictory joys, miseries, and possibilities of both physical exhaustion and exhaustion as a socio-political state. What kind of proximity, intimacy, and pleasure can emerge from listening to a body exerting itself? And why do we value people who push themselves to the extreme?
Ira’s work has been presented in the United Kingdom and internationally, including Malavoadora Porto, Matadero Madrid, Kanagawa Arts Theatre Yokohama, Hessisches Landestheater Marburg, Studiobühne Cologne, Monty Kultuurfaktorij Antwerp, The Basement Auckland and Abrons Arts Centre New York. She is also one of the co-directors of Forest Fringe, an award-winning artists’ collective with which for ten years she ran a festival location at the Edinburgh Fringe. In this capacity, she has also carried out projects both as artist and curator in London, Hong Kong, Auckland, Lisbon, Kanazawa and Salvador da Bahia.
Press
"Zelfgebouwde machine toont interessante spanning tussen twijfel en zekerheid."
Theaterkrant over Commitment Phobe"Knippen, plakken en schuiven om het brein te triggeren."
Theaterkrant over Like the party has been canceled"Ways to submit is een boeiend sociaal spel."
Theaterkrant over Ways to Submit"A fantastic and constantly surprising piece of theatre that discusses power on multiple levels."
★★★★ The Spy in the Stalls (UK) over Ways to Submit
Producties
