Igor Bauersima is a Swiss writer, director, architect and scenographer. From the late 1990 onward he became a prime mover of new German theater, pioneering the combination of live action and videoprojection in innovative ways, while firmly grounding his plays on philosophical concepts. He pays particular attention to issues relating to problems of morality, human identity, the individual and his relation to society. His work often addresses controversial subjects, either directly or by implication.
Life
Bauersima's family emigrated to Switzerland in 1968 after the suppression of the Prague Spring by the Warsaw Pact Armies. Bauersima studied Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, while working as an architect and as an assistant professor for video art. After graduating from the ETH Zürich in 1991, he started his own film production company and travelled the festival circus with self-produced short films. During this time he was playing in avant-jazz bands and producing the music for his soundtracks. From 1994 on he headed the independent theater group OFF OFF Stage, which became one of the most acclaimed Swiss theater companies. Bauersima's stile of writing and staging, often involving quick paced dialogue and a mix of film and theater, is strongly influenced by his experience as filmmaker. Forever Godard, a multi-media play about a group of aspiring actors, won the Impulse prize for best German speaking independent production in 1998. Bauersima left the OFF OFF stage in 2000 to write and direct a play for two young actors. The play was norway.today. Since its first staging in Düsseldorf it has become one of the biggest hits of contemporary German theater. It garnered the audience award at the Mülheim Theater Days, Bauersima was voted upcoming author of 2001 by the critics poll of the magazine Theater Heute and awarded the Bernese Book Award. Bauersima was the most staged author in German speaking theaters in seasons 2003 and 2004. His plays have been translated into more than twenty languages and staged by over hundred forty theaters worldwide. Since, Bauersima has been writing, directing and stage-designing plays and operas for theaters in Düsseldorf, Vienna, Hamburg, Zürich, Hannover, Stuttgart, Antwerp and others. In 1998 Bauersima teamed up with French speaking writer/producer Réjane Desvignes to create the content production company sonimage gmbh. In 1995, while starting his career in theater, Bauersima co-founded the architectural firm W3Architects. He left the company in 2010.
