"All art is only possible together" – this guiding principle is central to Anne Imhof’s work, which blends people, painting, drawing, video, music and sculpture into large-scale, hour-long art experiences that engage performers and audience alike.
She made her foray into the international art world at the 2017 Venice Biennale with her work "Faust" transforming the German Pavilion into an installation featuring performers moving below a raised glass floor through the exhibition space. The piece that won a Golden Lion award posed questions on power, control, and capitalism.
It followed the long durance performance piece "Sex" at Tate Modern in 2019 that explored technology’s impact on society, especially human relationships and loneliness in the digital age.
DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE at Park Avenue Armory
Now, from March 3rd to 12th 2025, New York audiences will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in yet another one of her engaging art experiences, "DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE," her largest performance to date, at the Park Avenue Armory.
The show, which reimagines Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, features nearly 50 New York-based dancers, artists, skaters, and musicians in the 55,000 square feet Drill Hall. Imhof describes “Doom” is "bigger and more complex than anything I’ve done before".
The work is not complete until the audience arrives, and Imhof looks forward to “experiencing the energy that the New Yorker's will bring to it.”
Collaboration, Chance and Creative Freedom
Imhof’s guiding principle of collaboration influences every aspect of the creative process, from rehearsal to performance. Instead of giving instructions she encourages performers to follow their intuition. "Hold a pose until you are bored with it," or "move until the gesture is pathetic or ridiculous and then push on further past that point" are the only directions given.
By allowing creative freedom she fosters chance and collaboration creating an energy that resonates with both performers and audiences. "I’m working with people as I dream the world would work".
Imhof insists that "DOOM" is not a direct response to President Trump, not least because she began working on the piece more than three years ago. However, she added, "I’m pretty aware that I’m a woman in a privileged position in terms of my career and the opportunities that are open to me, but American politics still affects me in very specific ways,” especially in the administration’s repressive actions toward the trans and queer communities, to which she and many of her collaborators belong.
