An interdisciplinary artist, Ersan Mondtag continues to push the limits of artistic form by extending his theatrical vision into the realm of contemporary art. His work brings together theater, music, performance, and installation to produce visually and conceptually arresting pieces that reflect on the complexities of social conditions and human experience.
Mondtag’s practice is grounded in revealing the tensions of contemporary individual and collective conflicts. Through a fusion of political, psychoanalytic, and historical inquiry with a formally experimental language, he constructs direct yet layered narratives. His interest lies in the transgressive nature of collective memory—an impulse that came to the fore in his major installation “Monument eines unbekannten Menschen” (Monument of an Unknown Person), presented in the German Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
Inspired by the life of his grandfather, Hasan Aygün, the installation was conceived as a counter-monument to the Biennale’s authoritarian architecture. Mondtag blocked the pavilion’s main entrance with a mound of soil brought from his grandfather’s village in Anatolia—where Aygün left for West Berlin in 1968—transforming the act into a symbolic gesture of exclusion and inaccessibility. The work powerfully evokes the structural erasure of migrant laborers, particularly those recruited from countries like Turkey, who formed the backbone of postwar German industry yet remained persistently marginalized in the public sphere.
Among Mondtag’s recent acclaimed projects is “Double Serpent”, which premiered at Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 2024 and was selected by the Berlin Theatertreffen as one of the ten most remarkable productions of the year. He previously appeared at the festival with “Das Internat” (2019), “Die Vernichtung” (2017), and “Tyrannis” (2016), quickly establishing himself as a leading figure in contemporary German theater. Das Internat was awarded the 3sat Prize, and Mondtag was named Young Director of the Year by Theater Heute in 2016, followed by dual recognition in 2017 as Costume Designer of the Year and Stage Designer of the Year by Deutsche Bühne.
Born in West-Berlin in 1987, Ersan Mondtag lives and works in Berlin.
Photo: Wilke Weermann