Darya von Berners operatic performances seek to provide a new opera experience. She modifies its traditional context, relocates it into the public realm, breaks the division between performers and observers and adapts musical scores for a reduced cast.

Former industrial sites, indoor as well as outdoor, serve as a stage and the audience members become part of the production since they mill about or stand in-between the singers and musicians. The intention behind these operatic performances is to create organic experiences, where influence in terms of action works in two directions.

Darya von Berner believes that the art world is not isolated from other cultural and life-systems, and with her performances she tries to create an environment, in which the work of art and the spectator are not separate, but interpenetrate one another, as a single living organism.

The viewers’ involvement and the visitors’ reactions are essential aspects in the planning. Every human action in space has a performative aspect.
During a performance it is a matter of perspective, from which angle the action is observed. When an action takes place in the public realm and open air, the experience of the space and its atmosphere becomes less controllable.