| Gert Hof | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Light Artist, Director | |
| Birth: | 4 May 1951 Taucha, Saxony  |
| Death: | 24 January 2012 (aged 60) |
Gert Hof (born 4 May 1951) was a German light artist and director.
Biography
Gert Hof grew up in the German Democratic Republic. He began his apprenticeship as a chemical technician near Leipzig, later he trained as a librarian by distance learning and then moved to the scientific Brecht Center in Berlin. Previously he had attended seminars in philosophy and theater studies in Leipzig.
Hof was sentenced in 1967, shortly before the beginning of his skilled worker training, by the Leipzig District Court for state-threatening incitement to an 18-month prison term. After the fall of the wall in 1989 he was rehabilitated.
He began his directing career at the Municipal Theater in Leipzig, where he met Frank Castorf among others. Hof had lived in Berlin since the mid-1970s and worked as a researcher at the Brecht Center, where he wrote several publications on Brecht's work. In the Brecht Center he was spotted by director and actor Alexander Lang. Gert Hof held various productions Lang (i.a. The Round Heads and Pointed Heads) as a dramaturge and assistant. This was followed by a collaboration with Siegfried Höchst and Ursula Karusseit at the Volksbühne. In the last years of the former German Democratic Republic staged yard at different theaters of the German Democratic Republic, i.a. in the theatre Altenburg, where he was until 1990 Oberspielleiter. After reunification he worked as a freelance director and worldwide as a light artist.
Hof staged in 1990, after he had already realized in 1989 in Altenburg the German premiere of the French author Bernard-Marie Koltès, whose piece In the loneliness of the cotton fields with Florian Martens and Uwe Steinbruch in the two main roles. Quai West, the second piece of the French author, staged Gert Hof at the Volksbühne, just before the Castorf era began. The music for the production was provided by FM Einheit (Einstürzende Neubauten) as well as Ulrike Haage and Katharina Franck (Rainbirds). The texts Bernard Marie Koltés did not let go court. He staged the battle of the negro and the dogs as the third piece of the now deceased author in the Palace of Tears, the former border crossing from East to West Berlin, starring Florian Martens, Peter Bause and Hannelore Koch. Finally Gert Hof brought in 1994 with Dumpfe voices his fourth Koltés piece on the stage of the Academy of Arts on Hanseatenplatz. Blixa Bargeld played one of the main roles and also provided the stage music. Due to this staging, in particular because of the extraordinary light and stage design, Hof got the order, Heiner Müller's Hamletmaschinein the Muffathalle Munich with the participation of the French drummers of Les Tambours du Bronx. The Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein designed the costumes and the stage design.
From 1995 he started his collaboration with the band Rammstein and from 1998 with the concept artist and producer Asteris Kutulas , with whom he realized over 40 productions (concerts, mega & special events) worldwide until 2012. The magazine Theater der Zeit praised Gert Hof in her obituary with the words: "Gert Hof was one of the visionaries of modern light art and one of the most sought-after lighting designers worldwide."
Gert Hof was married to the dramaturge Nina Juliane Martina Pietsch 20 years, with whom he has a son. He died on 24 January 2012 in the circle of his family and is buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin-Mitte.
Connection to Rammstein
As stage lighting designer.
- 1999: Rammstein - Live aus Berlin
- 2003: Rammstein - Lichtspielhaus
- 2006: Rammstein - Völkerball
As author.
- 2001: Rammstein - Rammstein book.
- 2002: Till Lindemann - Messer.