David Helbich BE/DE

David Helbich (1973, Berlin) has lived and worked in Brussels, Belgium, since 2002. He studied composition and philosophy in Amsterdam and Freiburg. He works as a sound and performance artist, as a visual and conceptual artist, as well as a conceptual photographer, composer, curator and teacher. He has created experimental works for stage, for print and online media, public space, has worked on artist books, illustrated scores and photo books, as well as live performances and concerts, sound interventions, audio guides and realised work on social media.

His trajectory moves between representational and interactive works, closed pieces and open interventions, conceptual gestures and actions. Many of Helbich‘s works and performances thematise concrete physical and social experiences, repositioning the audience as active and extending the space of performance. A recurring technique in this context is ‘self-performance’, whereby the audience takes on the roles of both performer and addressee.

In addition to numerous lectures, workshops and performances, Helbich’s work has been exhibited and presented internationally, including at the Queens Museum (NYC), D Museum (Daelim Museum, Seoul), Kanal – Centre Pompidou (Brussels), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Oude Kerk (Amsterdam), Philharmonie Luxembourg, UnionDocs (New York) and Café OTO (London). He has been commissioned by festivals such as Rainy Days in Philharmonie Luxembourg, Still Walking in Birmingham, Festival van Vlaanderen in Kortrijk, SPOR in Aarhus, Skanu Meg Festival in Riga, Borealis and Lydgalleriet in Bergen, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, and Ultima in Oslo.

Helbich’s curatorial and editorial projects include the online platform 1000 Scores – Pieces for Here, Now & Later which he founded in 2020 with Helgard Haug and Cornelius Puschke.