Visual Artist Theresa Baumgartner Makes Theater Basel Debut with "If I Do Not Return"

Berlin-based visual artist Theresa Baumgartner, known for her sculptural use of light and shadow, brings her distinct aesthetic to the opera stage this October. Baumgartner has designed the sets, costumes, and lighting for "If I Do Not Return," a new work composed by the pianist Hania Rani, premiering October 11 at Theater Basel's Elisabethenkirche, Elisabethenstrasse 14, 4051 Basel. The choice of venue is integral to the work. The Elisabethenkirche is a secularised church, and its singular spatial character has shaped every dimension of the staging from the ground up.

"If I Do Not Return" was created without a director. Instead, the four core collaborators, Hania Rani, mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo, soprano Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir, and Baumgartner, developed the piece together through a deliberately non-hierarchical process. The work that has emerged from this structure pushes against the grain of operatic convention: rather than reaching for grandeur, the production embraces the forces of silence and darkness.

The piece draws on the texts and music of John Dowland, the Elizabethan lutenist and songwriter, but frames them through two very different modern lenses: Stanislaw Lem's science fiction novel Solaris and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. These reference points anchor a work that moves through questions of feminism, ecological collapse, grief, and loss. Theater Basel characterizes the project as a "mystical, installative concert performance," a site-specific transformation of the church into a sonic landscape that connects Elizabethan England to a distant, speculative future.

"My practice is built on disruption rather than convention," says Baumgartner. "If you use a tool, you can tell a story, but the tool should never be the story."

This Theater Basel engagement follows a significant period for the artist. Recent highlights include: 

"If I Do Not Return" features the Neophyt Vokalensemble and the Kammerorchester Basel. The performance runs approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are available through Theater Basel.

For press tickets, interviews and backstage access, contact Claire Petersen at claire@quinto.com.

About Theresa Baumgartner
Theresa Baumgartner is a Berlin-based visual artist whose practice emerged from the city's experimental music and club culture. Trained in fine art and painting at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, she creates large-format light installations for the stage, gallery and screen, with recent work spanning contemporary dance, opera, film scoring and site-specific exhibition.