Opening of the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship of Eszter Salamon

08.06.2026 / 20:00 – 21:00

In a celebration of the renowned choreographer, filmmaker, and performer Eszter Salamon, who has taken up the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship for its twentieth annual season, Akademie der Künste – in cooperation with Freie Universität Berlin and the Artists-in-Berlin Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – will present her short film Sommerspiele (2023). An artist talk will be followed by a discussion between Salamon and  Sandra Noeth, professor at Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz (HZT) Berlin.

Welcoming words will be given by illustrious figures in Berlin dance: Gabriele Brandstetter and Nele Hertling (who together founded the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship in 2006), and Lucia Ruprecht (professor and current director of Critical Dance Studies at Freie Universität Berlin).

Salamon is known for her interdisciplinary, research-based artistic practice. She has engaged with Gert’s legacy in many of her own works. For example, Salamon has been developing The Valeska Gert MONUMENT series since 2015, a series of performative works relating to the life and works of Valeska Gert.

Her performative installation in the series, Study for the Valeska Gert Pavilion (2022), was presented at the Sixteenth Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art. The short film Reappearance (2022) is the first of a planned series of films by Salamon, and aims to present a cinematic speculation on history and memory. It is based on two anecdotes recounted by Valeska Gert. Salamon will present the second part of this series, Sommerspiele (2023), at the opening event of her visiting professorship.