Ivan Stanev (, born 29 June 1959, died 1 December 2023) was an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, scenographer and new media artist, who has been living in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

since 1988, and more recently in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Biography

Ivan Stanev was born in the city of

Varna, Bulgaria Varna (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, third-largest city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the Gulf of Varna, t ...

. His mother, Donka Raikova, was a lawyer and poet and his father, Stanju Stanev, was an engineer and photographer. He enrolled into a German-language high school, while also studying intensively French, Russian and English. He got his degree in Theatre Directing from the

National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a performing, cinematic and media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian university in the field of thea ...

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

. While a student in the academy, he founded a clandestine avant-garde theatre group, which led to severe conflicts with

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

in Communist

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Not allowed to work as a theatre director anymore, he went on to study

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the Sofia University, and started to translate the works of

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...

and

Heiner Muller __NOTOC__ Heiner is a German male name, a diminutive of Heinrich, and also a surname. Given name * Heiner Backhaus (born 1982), football player *Heiner Baltes (born 1949), football player * Heiner Brand (born 1952), West German handball player ...

, in the meantime writing plays, poems and essays, all to be published much later. In 1988, he was invited to present his theatre production called ''The Wound Woyzeck'' at a theatre festival in West-Berlin. He decided not to return to Bulgaria and to live in exile instead. He began to write in German and to stage his own plays in Berlin. Since 1999, he has also worked on several major Franco-German theatre productions. Due to his growing interest in visual arts, he directed and produced two experimental films: ''Villa Dei Misteri'' and ''Luxor Las Vegas''. In 2009 he finished his first independent feature film, shot on 35 mm, called ''Moon Lake'', produced by Donka Angelova. He lived in Berlin and Paris and worked in both Germany and France. He passed away on December 1, 2023.

Writings

;In Bulgarian * ''The Exterminated Denizens (excerpts from the sketchbooks of a démodé modernist)'' - poetry, drama, theory: 1985-1987. Publishing house "Virga", Sofia 1994, () ;In German *1992 ''Lapsus Linguae'',Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
/ref> Autoren-Kollegium Berlin *2000 ''Postskriptum'', a poem, Juliettes Literatursalon Berlin *2002 ''Villa Dei Misteri'', Juliettes Literatursalon Berlin *2003 ''Luxor Las Vegas'', Konkursbuch Verlag Berlin/Tübingen *2009 ''Moon Lake'', a poem, Publishing house Altera *2017 ''Abrasax Asteroiden'', a poem, Bleibende Steinzeit/Tumult/Sonderzahl Wien *2018 ''Place Fantôme'', dramatic poem, T.INTE Berlin ;In English *202
''Poems in Posthuman Akkadian''

Films

;Films shot on video
Villa dei misteri
(2003)
Luxor Las Vegas
(2006)
Le Bleu du Ciel
(2016)
Inge
(2019) ;Films shot on 35 mm * Moon Lake (2009) ;Web Television
''TTV - Totleben TV'' (2023)

Installations

Don Juan im Kumpelnest 3000 zu Berlin
(2000)
Hollywood Forever
(2004)
Place Fantôme
(2018)

New Media Art

CHEZ TOTLEBEN , Phantom Art Apartment
(2023)
GOT , Garden of Totleben
(2023)
TO DESCA , Totleben´s Writing Desk
(2023)

Exhibitions

2022)

2022)

2022)

2022)
MISS TOTO K. , SEVEN STAR GALLERY , BERLIN
2022)

Selected Major Productions

*1982 ''Wildwechsel (Deer Path) after Kroetz'' – banned performance *1984 ''The Love for Three Oranges'' by Ivan Stanev after Gozzi *1985, 1986 ''Alchimie de la douleur (The Alchemy of Sorrow)'' collage by Ivan Stanev after Chekhov, Wittgenstein, Baudelaire, Ionesco – banned performance *1987, 1988 ''Woyzeck. Die Wunde Woyzeck. Bildbeschreibung'' (''The Wound Woyzeck'') after Büchner / Müller, Theatre Sofia,

Hebbel Theater The Hebbel-Theater (Hebbel Theatre) is a historic theatre building for plays in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Germany. It has been a venue of the company Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) from 2003. The theatre, with approximately 800 seats, was built by Oskar Kaufmann ...

Berlin *1989 ''Betrogen / Gestern an einem sonnigen Nachmittag (Betrayal/Yesterday on a Sunny Afternoon)'' after Harold Pinter / Heiner Müller, Studiotheater München *1990/91 ''Schuld und Bühne (Rhyme and Punishment)'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Eurokaz Zagreb *1991 ''Hermaphroditus'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Kampnagelfabrik Hamburg, Mickery Amsterdam, Theater der Welt Essen *1992 ''Brüderchen und Schwesterchen (Brother and Sister)'', by Ivan Stanev, Podewil Berlin *1995 ''Die Möwe (The Seagull)'' by Chekhov, Volksbühne Berlin *1998 ''Sprechen-Schweigen (Speak-Fall Silent)'' after Ionesco/Wittgenstein, Podewil Berlin *1998 ''Good night, ladies'' after Shakespeare/Müller, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin *1999 ''Histoire de l'œil (Story of the Eye) by Georges Bataille'', Théâtre de la Manufacture Nancy, Theatre Sofia *1999 ''Don Juan im Kumpelnest 3000 zu Berlin (Don Juan in Kumpelnest 3000 in Berlin)'', Sophiensaele Berlin *2000 ''Le bleu du ciel (The Blue of Noon)'' by Georges Bataille, Sophiensaele Berlin, Théâtre de Chartres, La rose des vents Lille, Théâtre Antoine Vitez Aix-en-Provence *2001 ''Villa Dei Misteri'' by Ivan Stanev, Sophiensaele Berlin, Théâtre de la Bastille Paris, Théâtre Antoine Vitez Aix-en-Provence, La rose des vents Lille, FFT Düsseldorf *2002 ''Luxor Las Vegas'' by Ivan Stanev, Sophiensaele Berlin *2004 ''Hollywood Forever'' by Ivan Stanev, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Le Maillon Strassburg, La rose des vents Lille, FFT Düsseldorf, Gessnerallee Zürich *2004 ''Moon Lake'', after a poem by Ivan Stanev, Norwegian Theatre Academy Fredrikstad *2005 ''Digging Materials ()'' by Ivan Stanev after Platonov, Theater Sfumato, Sofia *2009, 2010 ''Mord im Burgtheater (Murder in Burgtheater)'' by Ivan Stanev, Volksbühne Berlin, Le Maillon Strassburg *2011 ''Rustschuk - Die gerettete Zunge (Rustschuk - The Saved Tongue)'' by Elias Canetti, Theater Osnabrück *2013 ''Bitte bei TOTLEBEN klingeln'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Wonderloch Kellerland / Berlin *2015 ''TTV. Live from Todessa'' - Totleben TV *2017 ''Scherzo di Follia'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Kopfgeldjäger, Berlin *2018 ''Place Fantôme'' - written and directed by Ivan Stanev, Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin

Grants and awards

VILLA DEI MISTERI , Special Ivan Stanev , FilmFest München
2003)
VILLA DEI MISTERI , Videoart Award , AsoloArtFilmFestival, Italy
2005)
WEIL , Simone Weil , Work in Progress , GVL, Neustart Kultur
(2022)
LA TÊTE , Jeanne Hébuterne , Work in Progress , GVL, Neustart Kultur
(2022)
KAMIKAZE KARAOKE , Work in Progress , Akademie der Künste, Berlin
(2022)
NINURTA´S EXPLOITS , Poems in Posthuman Akkadian , Work in Progress , Fonds Darstellende Künste
(2022)
MISS TOTO K. , Toto Koopman , Work in Progress , Fonds Darstellende Künste
(2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanev, Ivan German theatre directors German mass media people German-language film directors 1959 births Living people Artists from Varna, Bulgaria Sofia University alumni Bulgarian emigrants to Germany German male writers