ABOUT US
Artists at the Origin
Via Berlin was founded by artists — theatre maker Dagmar Slagmolen and violinist Rosa Arnold — with a shared drive to translate complex societal realities into deeply felt artistic experiences. From the outset, we have been experts in embodying difficult themes and transforming them into powerful, accessible works of music theatre.
A Distinctive Music-Theatre Language
Our early work established a distinctive voice within the Dutch theatre landscape: performances in which music and text, actor and musician, function as fully equal storytelling forces. This approach earned critical acclaim and, in 2014, the Charlotte Köhler Prize for our trilogy on war narratives — recognising our unique contribution to contemporary music theatre.
Since then, our work has travelled widely, from Brazil to Russia and China, and from Norway to South Africa, engaging audiences across continents.
Artistic Leadership
Under the artistic leadership of Dagmar Slagmolen, Via Berlin has grown into a company known for embodying complex themes and translating them into immersive artistic experiences. As a theatre maker, performer, musician, and writer, Dagmar is driven by the question of how social tensions can be transformed into experiences that audiences can truly feel — not only understand. Her artistic vision continues to shape the company’s evolving practice.
Expanding the Form
Rooted in music theatre, our practice has expanded beyond the traditional stage. Today, we work across artistic forms — performances, installations, in-depth context programmes, exhibitions, and artistic interventions in public space — always choosing the medium that best serves the question at hand.
Each research trajectory demands its own artistic language. Sometimes that language is musical and theatrical; sometimes it is spatial, participatory, or site-specific. What remains constant is our commitment to immersion: creating environments in which audiences do not merely observe a theme, but experience it from within.
Art as Entry Point
We address urgent societal questions — war, loneliness, power, neurodivergence, democratic resilience, populism, social fragmentation — not as abstract concepts, but as lived realities. Our work invites audiences into embodied encounters where complexity can be felt, navigated, and shared.
Via Berlin believes that art is not an illustration of reality, but a way of entering it. By combining artistic research with immersive practice, we create spaces where emotion, insight, and critical reflection converge — opening perspectives and strengthening dialogue in times of polarisation and change.
Mission
We realize transdisciplinary artistic research in the Netherlands and across Europe, in collaboration with scientists and societal partners addressing urgent societal challenges.
Through immersive artistic interventions, we bring forth embodied and often unspoken knowledge within complex systems. What is first experienced is subsequently given form.
We develop new language, images, and sensory expressions that render visible and tangible what previously remained unseen, connecting research, experience, and public dialogue.
Vision
Art constitutes a distinct mode of knowledge production within transdisciplinary research cultures.
In complex societal systems, much of what fundamentally shapes our shared reality remains unarticulated because it has not yet found language or form. Artistic research enables embodied and relational knowledge to surface and take shape across disciplinary boundaries.
When experience, imagination, and critical inquiry converge, new knowledge emerges — knowledge that is felt before it is articulated and publicly shared before it is formalized.
Across the Netherlands and Europe, this approach contributes to a research culture in which insights do not remain confined to analysis and reports, but circulate in forms that can be publicly experienced, discussed, and further developed.
How We Work
Our work begins in society. We attune to tensions that surface in public discourse and in lived experience — themes that demand deeper inquiry. Through extensive preliminary research, we engage with experts, scientists, and people directly affected, approaching each trajectory as a form of artistic and embodied inquiry.
Rather than simplifying complexity, we translate it into immersive environments in which multiple perspectives can coexist. In this way, our performances function as transdisciplinary spaces for reflection — activating dialogue between art, science, and society.
Form & Signature
Via Berlin has developed a distinctive music-theatre language in which live classical music serves as the primary storyteller. Text is used with precision; music carries the emotional architecture and creates space for contemplation and resonance.
By weaving together music, choreography, image, and performance, we create layered, immersive experiences that invite audiences into experiential engagement rather than passive observation. This approach — rooted in artistic research and immersion — fosters empathy, perspective-shifting, and meaningful societal dialogue.
Selected Works & Research Projects
What Happens When We Meet? (2026)
Scripted Nordic LARP | MEN4DEM (Horizon Europe)
When Did You Leave? (2025)
Music theatre & live scientific research | MEN4DEM (Horizon Europe)
Normality No More (2024)
On neurodivergence | Live scientific research & context programme
Huis G. (2023)
Music theatre interwoven with scientific research | Radboud University
Invisible City (2023)
Site-specific music-theatre installation for public space (NL, England)
Acts of Citizenship (2022)
Music theatre & large-scale live scientific research | University of Amsterdam (Hot Politics Lab)
The Instant Trilogy (2016–2021)
Instant Happiness
Instant Love
Instant Loneliness
(NL, England)
Breaking the Silence (2017)
International tour (NL, Kosovo, Russia, China)
Comfortzone / Dead End (2015)
On displacement and life without legal status. Co-production with Orkater.
Masote’s Dream
Co-production with Orkater (South Africa collaboration)
War Trilogy (2009–2013)
Awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize (2014)
Een mond vol zand/ Vanaf nu heet je Pjotr/ Home Sweet Home.
