Margit Koppendorfer. Costume Designs

Margit Koppendorfer designs costumes for characters from Shakespeare, Brecht and Handke, directed by Bergau, Peymann and Tabori, performed in Vienna, Zurich and Berlin. Her ideas are inspired by the cast’s preliminary read-through of a play, by her personal relationships to the directors and stage design, by her understanding of the roles as well as the performers – and not least by the interaction of all elements of the total artwork that is theatre.

Prior to the transformation of the costumes, there is always a process of drawing. In this, Koppendorfer’s creative imagination fabricates scenic visions in her very own poetic language. The portrayal of the characters on stage, the intuitive exploration of the characters, and the sketch-like search in faces, bodies and gestures bring a text or libretto to life.

A gestural, impulsive style, traces of strong bold lines, delicate details: as a rule, every sheet finds its very own vision of the character’s inner being. The primary colours of yellow, red and blue often form their psychological starting point – a colour field of good to darkness. The turbulently structured background spaces lend an additional dynamic to the expression and mood. The actor always takes centre stage in this from the outset, with the very essence of the character melding with the individuality of the performer. Koppendorfer calls it ‘thinking from the inside out’.

The fact that the figures and portraits are often drawn life-size is to do with the love the costume designer has for the performers: a human encounter at the drawing stage, so to speak. A process of growth on the fertile bedrock of a play or an opera, the journey to an unknown destination during rehearsals. Koppendorfer’s drawings form each stage of this journey. In a field charged with psychological interpretations of characters and defamiliarising strategies of the fine arts, the unique mixed-media designs on transparent paper make it possible to unequivocally relive how the costume designer bestows identities upon the characters.

On over 150 pages, Costume Designs presents large-format details of characters as well as reproductions of whole sheets. Texts by various authors engage with Koppendorfer‘s art from different perspectives: editor Iris Maria vom Hof, for example, examines the drawings, while actor Maria Happel provides insights into the development of the costumes, and writer Elfriede Jelinek takes a look at the significant role that Koppendorfer’s costumes themselves play in the production.


About Margit Koppendorfer
Following posts at Schauspiel Frankfurt and Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Margit Koppendorfer has been working as a freelance costume designer since 1987. She has worked with directors such as Peter Palitzsch, Augusto Fernandes, Christof Nel, Alfred Kirchner, Nicolas Brieger, Philip Tiedemann, Amelie Niemeyer, and Ruth Berghaus on productions at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Berliner Ensemble, and other theaters in Cologne, Munich, and Düsseldorf. Koppendorfer has also designed costumes for opera productions in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Lisbon, and Zurich.

Koppendorfer’s encounter with George Tabori at the Munich Residenztheater in 1989 was of great significance in informing her artistic approach. Her previous encounter with Claus Peymann at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1986 had an equally formative effect. Her first collaboration in the legendary Peymann era began with the production of Ingeborg Bachmann, who? and had a lasting influence on
Koppendorfer’s artistic development.

From 1983 to 1997 Koppendorfer lectured at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she proved to be a motivational inspiration as advisor to Professor Erich Wonder’s class.