about

As  live artist Katrin Woelger works within time and space. Often participatory. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in a constant search of what reality is and how reality might implement art and vice versa. Sequels, performances and installations are site-specific. They originate for a site, are designed for and in it, using ideas and materials found in it. Recent works include collaborations with audiences as well as with animals or other nun-human elements.

“…Katrin Wölger radically applies the deconstruction of identity to her own as an artist. She pushes the dismantling of all ingredients and dimensions of artist identity to the point where it turns into socio-cultural self-destruction …” Wolfgang Pauser 2014

…working with “alter-egos” and never reveiled heteronyms since 1995, but using mostly “Katrin Woelger” since 2014…
The multiple beings stand for subject areas.
YOUR COUSIN PIA – the principle of embarrassment, network, the individual in society. Secret (and) Societies, Social and Phobia; PIA = PostIntellectualistic Artist ≠ PostIntellectual Artist, resists intellectualisation, since 2007
MISS TAKE – the principle of error, she defends the right to fail, to be wrong, to be bad, she loves the perfect imperfection since 2003
KALINKA – the principle of longing, the working woman, the longing for a different life/country, feminism in/and communism. Cliché. since 2001
ANA FAGRI – the principle of un/happiness, a person divided into three parts – blonde, red and black, about ideas of paradise in religions, happiness, unhappiness and suicide, existential questions of life, the meaning of life, death, survival, happiness; the search for answers in mythologies and religions of different cultures. since 1999
VALESKA – the principle of “Ichpfeifdraufismus” – homage to Valeska Gert 1995

has evolved from the need to create spaces and environments for performances …

>>> videos, screenings

Katrin Woelger is not only an artist but also a dedicated collector, with “collecting” serving as a central theme in some of her work. Her collections are dynamic and continually evolving, often originating from her performative art. Over the years, she has curated a variety of unique and thought-provoking collections, including:

• Ana Fagri Interviews (since 1999): A collection of interviews focused on personal suicide prevention ideas.
• DNA Collection (since 2001): A collection of pubic hair.
• Unknown Friends (since 2015): A series of photographs featuring unknown individuals with herself in more or less intimate gestures.
• Animal Collaboration (since 2017): Salt sculptures created in collaboration with various mammals.
• Tell Me All Your Secrets! (since 2024): Secrets collected and stored in tights.
• C & S! (since 2024): A collection of odors from remote areas, tied to her olfactory-themed works.

Woelger’s collections blur the line between art, personal experience, and conceptual exploration, often merging performance with the act of collecting.

…elements of taste and smell, creating ephemeral works, exploring hospitality as an artistic practice with Your Cousin Pia…

take part: >>>> here

• 1999 foundation of “kunstverein am donnerstag” with friend and collegue Jutta Wörtl-Gössler in order to produce and organize exhibitions, performances and interdisciplinary cultural events.
• founder and organizer of SALONPARCOURS Wien.

creates logos, designs, postcards, advertising for selected clients since 2001

Before discovering performance art and after leaving university, where she studied art-history and theater science, Katrin Woelger worked as an actress. She studied under Peter Michl-Bernhard in Vienna, Hope Arthur and others at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, trained at Teatro Abraxa in Rome, and learned from Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba. She still loves the writings of Antonin Artaud. Woelger was a member of  “Totales Theater Wien” ensemble for five years and co-founded the Wiener Salontheater.

In addition to participating in international art and performance festivals, there were also significant formative experiences and art residencies through extended stays in New York, Cairo, Estonia, France, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Haiti, Mexico, Norway…

there is a serious involvement with plants, mushrooms and their use since childhood.

Katrin Woelger grew up on a farm in the Austrian Alps and spent most of her time in the forest. Later she spent a lot of time in bars and at parties. Lately she prefers to return to the forest.

mother of 2: Valentin *2004 and Felicitas *1997

Katrin Woelger is in a partnership with Swiss artist Frederick Steinmann, with whom she has collaborated on various projects. The couple has two children and has resided in Egypt for a period of time.

somom – song of myself or (m)other is an annual inventory of the common existences of Katrin and Felicitas Woelger as mother and daughter and as women artists. The collective examines questions of care, motherhood and responsibility. It is about otherness, alterity and the self-assertion of a society. It is about the position of the individual within a collective, about questions of equal rights for people with impairments or other differences and about our interactions with one another.>>>> catalogue  >>>> instagram

*walenta&wölger have been working with the literary legacy of Daniil Kharms and his philosophy for years in the form of performances, slowshort films, writing workshops and regular charms meetings. Their joint work is based on his artistic work.

gemeine gefahren  (common dangers) was a collaboration with Jutta Wörtl-Gössler, a series of performances  resulting in an exhibition 1993/1994.

Vienna Salontheater was founded in 1992 by Stephanie Schmiderer, Christoph Braendle, and Katrin Woelger, who left in 1997. Woelger and Schmiderer co-founded Wiener Salonparcours in 2017, collaborating until 2022. Since 2023, it is led by Woelger and co-curated with Johanna W. Olivier.

1989 – 1994 Member of the ensemble of Markus Kupferblum’s Totales Theater Wien.