Annalena Fröhlich's artistic practice ranges across a broad spectrum from sound, performance to video art. Driven by contemporary discourses and in a wide-ranging research, Fröhlich deconstructs sounds, images and techniques of creation. As a solo artist and in numerous international collaborations, she continuously works on a transmedia Gesamtkunstwerk and audio-visual political statement that exists in both physical and virtual space.
Her alter ego JAMES celebrates Glitch as an active tool of resistance. In an audio-visual performance, located in deconstructed club, glitch and chaos beats, JAMES plays with the codes of club, performance and political protest. An over stimulating combination of bass, beats, fluctuating genres and images of our age of chaos, data-ism, post-truth, new technologies and algorithm-based realities.
Annalena Fröhlich studied piano and voice at Jazz school in Lucerne in the years 2004/05. She left the school after just one year to pursue an autodidactic formation in the fields of performance, sound and composition and later video art. In the following years, she developed her multidisciplinary artistic practice and acquired extensive technical expertise through countless tutorials and nerdy experimentation. In her research, she sought to transition from being just a user of tools and technologies to becoming a creator and glitch. In view of the world situation and her personal environment, her art has become more and more politicized and radicalized.
As a mainly self-taught artist, Fröhlich's style is characterized by its unorthodox, eclectic glitch nature.
Residencies in Brussels, Beirut, New York and Buenos Aires. Master in Theater with a specialisation in Scenic Arts Practice at HKB, Berne. / Received scholarship for composition, Société Suisse des Auteurs SSA, 2013 / Atelier scholarship New York by the canton of Berne, 2013. Residencies in Brussels BE, Beirut LE, and Buenos Aires AR. / 2013-2015 Associated Artist of Dampfzentrale Bern with deRothfils
AWARDED WITH THE MUSIKPREIS KANTON BERN, SUISSE 2024
Collaborations has been a cornerstone of Fröhlich's artistic journey. She has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including: robinrobin; Fhunyue Gao; DANCE DIVINE, AQUATRANSMUTE, Claudia Bossard, AVALANCHE KAITO, Marie Gyselbrecht, Vinco Zone, Ariadna Gironès Mata, Peeping Tom, Elisabeth Weiss, Andy Besuch, arp: (Julia Reist), Mohamed Toukabri, Jorge Guevara, Gao/Kacirek, deRothfils, Nina Stadler, Romy Springsguth,Yara Bou Nassar, Paed Conca, Moritz Alfons, Giulin Stäubli, Matthias Günter, Yannick Mosimann, Anne Welenc, Annina Machaz.
Her works and collaborations have been showcased at renowned venues and festivals, (among others): Dream City Festival Tunis, Grand théâtre de Genève, festival les créatives Genève, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Münchener Volkstheater, Volkstheater Wien; Ballhaus Ost Berlin, Decoratelier, Beursschowbourg, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Dampfzentrale Bern, Nederlands Dance Theatre NDT; Theater Basel; Roxy Theater Basel; Treibstoff Theatertage Basel; Station, Beirut; Espace Libre, Biel, Cinedans Dance onScreen Amsterdam, Tojo Thetaer Reitschule Bern, Schlachthaus Theater, Rote Fabrik Zürich
JAMES performed at: Dachstock Reitschule Bern, BIG Bienale, Genève, Sägezahn Festival Vienna, Ateliers Mommens Bruxelles, Halles de Saint Géri, Cafe Centraal, Kiosk Radio, Tour Vagabonde Lugano, the crazy circle Bruxelles, BLOND Ghent,
Critics highlight the unique and impactful nature of Annalena Fröhlich's contributions. One review commented her video work as a "truly remarkable detail" in the production In den Alpen/après les alpes (director: Claudia Bossard), emphasizing its ability to create an "image of perpetually repeating catastrophe" through intermedial superimposition of drama and film.
and for Transatlantic flight for ODD BEHOLDER video clip odd beholder: «In the video, which was directed by Annalena Fröhlich, who also happens to play the main character, we see a chain-smoking stewardess dancing something of a jagged, spasmodic flamenco. It’s a powerful and hypnotic performance that simultaneously evokes famed directors Almodovar and Lynch.» the big takeover©
JAMES released its first track YOU DON'T PAY THE PRICE on the VA People's Pluto by the label AQUATRANSMUTE by DANCE DIVINE.
One of the noteworthy collaborations in Fröhlich's career is her long-term and ongoing collaboration with theater director Claudia Bossard. This collaboration has allowed Fröhlich to contribute as a video artist and sound designer to major theater institutions in German-speaking countries across Europe. Latest works are shown in Deutsches Theater Berlin (BARACKE, Rainald Goetz 2023), Volkstheater München (Feeling Faust 2022), Volkstheater Wien (In den Alpen / après les alpes, 2022, Elfriede Jelinek, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Dreckfutmetzger (Lydia Haider 2021), Bunbury Ernst sein is Everything, (Deutsches Theater Berlin).
With Fhunyue Gao she initiated ROBIN ROBIN, a virtual and physical platform on which they experiment excessively and unconventionally with sound, scenic installations, choreography, themes and formats. Together they are on an intense research about how to be a not only a user of contemporary medias but becoming a creater.
In 2010 Fröhlich and dancer and choreographer Nina Stadler cofounded and co-directed the dance theater collective deRothfils based in Berne, Switzerland. deRothfils created performances, short movies, site specific and longdurational performances with which they toured internationally in the years 2010 till 2018. With deRothfils Fröhlich made her film directorial debut. they keep disappearing was in the official selection of Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival Amsterdam.
Annalena Fröhlich made an appearance with JAMES in the clip of Avalanche Kaito and realised several music clips like BOWIE for Fhunyue Gao & Sven Kacirek, 2021, Loneliness and Transatlantic Flight for Odd Beholder. The latter got nominated for the BMVMA 2022 - Bewegungsmelder Video Music Award.
Press voices about Annalena Fröhlich
"A truly remarkable detail of the production lies in Annalena Fröhlich's video work. The constellative combination of theatre, words, music and filmic montage reveal an antagonism at the heart of both pieces: the scenic Alpine idyll, waved through by merry skiers, oscillates ever more strongly between a mythically overformed world of life and an economically controlled systemic world. In terms of film poetry and montage, this effect is created by superimposing planetary-looking objects. The perspective of time is successfully undermined and a cosmic space is created that connects past and future. Thus the evening, especially through its intermedial superimposition of drama and film, leaves us with an image of perpetually repeating catastrophe."
in den Alpen / apres les alpes Volkstheater wien / Neue Wiener Theaterkritik feb. 2023
«Ein wirklich bemerkenswertes Detail der Inszenierung liegt in Annalena Fröhlichs Videoarbeit. ... Die konstellative Verbindung von Theater, Wort, Musik und filmischer Montage machen im Herzen beider Stücke einen Antagonismus offenbar: Das landschaftlich Alpenidyll, durchwedelt von vergnügten Skifahrer*innen, oszilliert immer stärker zwischen mythisch überformter Lebens- und ökonomisch gesteuerter Systemwelt. Filmpoetisch und montagetechnisch wird dieser Effekt durch die Überlagerung von planetarisch anmutenden Objekten erzeugt. Die Zeitperspektive wird gelingend ausgehebelt und ein kosmischer Raum geschaffen, der Vergangenheit und Zukunft miteinander verbindet. So hinterlässt der Abend, besonders durch seine intermediale Überlagerung von Schauspiel und Film, ein Bild der sich immerwährend wiederholenden Katastrophe. ...» zu in den Alpen / apres les alpes Volkstheater wien / Neue Wiener Theaterkritik feb. 2023
Transatlantic flight video clip odd beholder
Interviews
«In der Lücke liegt die Möglichkeit zur existenz.» Preview to SONDER at der Bund
