Philipp Ruch

Biography

Stage director and artistic director of the Center for Political Beauty (ZPS). Ruch studied political philosophy and intellectual history, the basis for aggressive humanism. His work is a testament to the possibilities of art and theatre as a fifth branch of government. Dissertation on “The Feelings of Honor: Sense of Honor and Libel in Antiquity as the Basis for a Political Theory” (under the direction of Prof. Herfried Münkler and Prof. Hartmut Böhme), Research Fellow at the DFG Collegium for the Advanced Study of “Picture Act and Embodiment”. The ZPS is one of the incubators of political action art and stands for an expanded form of art and theatre. In 2010, in the name of 6,000 survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, the ZPS presented a monument against the United Nations: the Pillar of Shame, which all Bosnia was behind.  In 2012 the reclusive arms dealers of the Leopard II tank were involuntarily exposed to national scrutiny through a 25,000 reward. In 2014, in an action that recalled the British transport of children in 1938/1939, the ZPS aided Syrian refugees to travel into the European Union. Also in 2014 the ZPS created a parallel between the victims of the Berlin Wall and the deaths at the external border to the EU. Works have been shown in numerous contexts, including at the 7th Berlin Biennale, Steirischer Herbst, Gorki Theater, ZKM Karlsruhe, NGBK, and HMKV.