Peter Missotten (°Hasselt 1963) trained as a video artist. Alongside a career as a media artist, he worked all of his life in and around theatre spaces - starting as a light designer for ‘
The Cement Garden’ in 1983. This started a long collaboration as a stage designer for Guy Cassiers, which went on and off during some 25 years ('
Wasp Factory', 'Sunken Red', 'Rage d’Amour',' Der Fliegende Holländer', 'Onegin'… to name just a few). He wrote and directed publicity films for established brands such as Interbrew, CERA, C&A, Henkel etc…
In 1994 he founded
de Filmfabriek with Anne Quirynen and Anne Heyman:
A company dealing with the crossover between digital and performance arts. They worked intensively on projects with artists as
William Forsythe, Wim Vandekeybus, Guy Cassiers and Georges Aperghis. Artists as Wies Hermans, Bram Smeyers, Kurt d’Haeseleer and Ief Spincemaille joined them over the years. They produced some experimental digital feature films, such as 'The Way of the Weed' and worked as a graphic design company for numerous art companies such ast Blindman Quartet, Laika, Needcompany, SACD, ro theater, Museum of Breda etc…
From 2000 on, Peter Missotten evolved from a designer of digital media art into a director for performance arts and opera productions. In 2006-2010 he joined Toneelhuis as a director. His first intermediate performance 'Quartett' by Heiner Muller was coproduced by the Schauspielhaus in Vienna. His adaptation of 'The Waste land' by T.S.Eliot was selected for the Holland Festival 2008. In 2009, he directed the world creation of '
KEPLER', an opera by Philip Glass for Linz09 at the Landestheater Linz (Austria). In 2010 he created '
MONTEZUMA - FALLENDER ADLER', an opera by
Bernhard Lang, for the Nationaltheater Mannheim (D). He designed the stage and light concept for quite a few choreographies, by example '
The New Factory' by Guilherme Miotto and Michael Schumacher for Dansgroep Amsterdam. He developed a visual, performance based libretto for '
THE GOLEM', a new opera by Bernhard Lang, which he staged (direction, video, lights and stage design) for the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 2016.
He is a Master in Visual Arts (LUCA School of Arts Brussels) and has a masterclass degree in Cultural Managment (University of Antwerp)
He did teach performance arts at the Toneelacademie Maastricht (2003-22) and is head of the research group Technology Driven Art at Zuyd (NL).
foto © Moniek Wegdam 2015
