To overcome the breakup with Alma Mahler, the painter Oskar Kokoschka ordered a life-size doll. In 1918 she became his permanent companion until she found her end during a drunken night. One hundred years later, Gloria Benedikt and Krisztián Gergye explore the psychological mechanisms of the famous amour fou and end up on a journey through European cultural history, which leads to questions that are as relevant today as they were then. Are we all dolls? And can we prevent being manipulated? 

The Doll of Kokoschka was commissioned for the Bridging Europe Festival 2015, which has been initiated by Ivan Fischer. It premiered at the Palace of Art in Budapest on Sept. 13th and has since been invited to Festivals in Szeged, Köszeg, Györ, Szombathely, Gheorgheni, Veszprem, Miskolc, and Sarajevo, while repeatedly returning to Budapest as part of the Palace of Art Programming by the Hungarian National Dance Theater. The final performance (Derniere) took place at the Odeon Theater in Vienna on July 2, 2022.