Franz André Heller is an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n artist, author, singer and actor.

Biography

Heller was born in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 into a wealthy Jewish family of sweets

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 manufacturers ("Gustav & Wilhelm Heller"). His almost daily visits to the Café Hawelka

Café Hawelka

Café Hawelka is a coffeehouse in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna located at Dorotheergasse 6.The Café Hawelka was opened by Leopold Hawelka in 1939. Hawelka had previously operated the Kaffee Alt Wien on Bäckerstraße since 1936 and together with his wife Josefine took over the Café Ludwig in...

 were in his opinion a key element in the development of his literary orientation. It was in this coffeehouse that he met many men of letters including Friedrich Torberg

Friedrich Torberg

Friedrich Torberg is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer.- Biography :...

, H. C. Artmann

H. C. Artmann

Hans Carl Artmann , also known as Ib Hansen, was an Austria-born poet and writer, most popular for his early poems written in Viennese , which however never after were to be the focus of his oeuvre.-Life and work:Artmann was born in Vienna as the son of shoe...

 und occasionally Elias Canetti

Elias Canetti

Elias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".-Life:...

 as well as Hans Weigel and Helmut Qualtinger

Helmut Qualtinger

Helmut Qualtinger was an Austrian actor, writer and cabaret performer.-Biography:Helmut Qualtinger was born in Vienna, Austria...

, with whom he later on collaborated and performed. He took acting classes from Hans Weigel and his cohabitee Elfriede Ott.

Heller has been writing prose, poetry, and songs since 1964. He left school shortly before obtaining the Matura

Matura

Matura or a similar term is the common name for the high-school leaving exam or "maturity exam" in various countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia,...

, (he went to a Jesuit

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

). From 1965 to 1967 he was a moderately successful actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 at various Viennese avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 theatres. In 1967 Heller co-founded Hitradio Ö3

Hitradio Ö3

Hitradio Ö3 is one of the national radio stations of Austria's state-run broadcaster ORF.The station focuses on contemporary music. Until 1995 its schedules included many specialist music shows, but following a reorganization of ORF's channels shortly before the introduction in Austria of private...

, the ORF

ORF (broadcaster)

Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF, is the Austrian national public service broadcaster.Funded from a combination of a television licence fees and revenue from limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media...

's then progressive pop music station, where he was one of the hosts of the daily Musicbox programme. Jointly with Bernhard Paul, Heller also co-founded the well-known Circus Roncalli

Circus Roncalli

Circus Roncalli is a German circus founded in 1976 by Bernhard Paul and André Heller. According to Bernhard Paul, the name was inspired by a film script of his fellow Austrian Peter Hajek, "Sarah Roncalli, Tochter des Mondes"...

 in 1976.

From 1976 until 1981, André Heller played major roles in various international movies, this included roles in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg is a German film director, whose best known film is his lengthy feature, Hitler: A Film from Germany.- Early life :...

’s Hitler: A Film from Germany

Hitler: A Film from Germany

Hitler: A Film from Germany is a 1978 Franco-British-German experimental biopic directed by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, produced by Bernd Eichinger, and co-produced by the BBC. It starred Heinz Schubert, who played both Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler...

, Radu Gabrea’s Fürchte Dich nicht, Jakob and Doktor Faustus by Johannes Schaaf.

In 1986 Heller coordinated the creation of Luna Luna in Hamburg, a traveling combination of a contemporary art park and a “child’s dream” of an amusement park. Heller invited famous artists of different generations to participate. Salvador Dali

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

, Jean Tinguely

Jean Tinguely

Jean Tinguely was a Swiss painter and sculptor. He is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics...

, Jim Whiting

Jim Whiting

Jim Whiting is a British artist and inventor. He was born in Paris and spent his early childhood in Salisbury , Zimbabwe before returning to the UK with his family in 1959...

 and Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...

 created special installations. Younger Americans Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...

, Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...

, and Kenny Scharf

Kenny Scharf

Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...

, along with several German neo-expressionist painters decorated children’s rides.

Heller has received numerous international awards. He has to date written 14 printed publications, among them collections of stories Die Ernte der Schlaflosigkeit in Wien, Auf und Davon, Schlamassel, Als ich ein Hund war, the novel Schattentaucher, the collection of poems Sitzt ana und glaubt, er is zwa (together with Helmut Qualtinger), as well as two picture books Jagmandir – Traum und Wirklichkeit and Die Zaubergärten des André Heller. 21 TV documentaries have been produced about Heller's projects, productions and plans. These were done by the likes of Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...

, H.J. Syberberg, and Elsa Klensch, among others.

Heller was appointed artistic director of the artistic and cultural programme which ran parallel to the 2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

 in Germany. His company Artevent was also responsible for the successful Presentation of the Germany bid for the FIFA 2006 World Cup project. Between 1968 and 1983 Heller recorded 15 albums as singer of his own texts and in part of his own compositions. He was on the road with 9 international concert tours, and was the host and entertainer in 12 evening-filling TV shows.

Lately, in 2006—thanks to the initiative of Chris Gelbmann

Chris Gelbmann

Chris Gelbmann is an Austrian singer-songwriter who had an eventful life. Inspired by Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, JJ Cale, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens and many more, he started as singer-songwriter at the age of 13 and since his youth he was known for his charismatic voice, a distinctive timbre and a very...

—he released his last album called Ruf und Echo. The 3 CD compendium is the first release in the past 20 years, containing new songs and interpretations of old hits by artists like Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, Xavier Naidoo

Xavier Naidoo

Xavier Kurt Naidoo is a German singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actor. Born and raised in Mannheim, Naidoo worked in several jobs in the gastronomy and the musical industry before relocating to the United States in the early 1990s, where he released his first full-length English...

, Thomas D

Thomas D

Thomas D. is a rapper in the German hip hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. He frequently works on solo projects.- Life :...

. The Walkabouts

The Walkabouts

The Walkabouts is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1984. The core members are vocalist Carla Torgerson and vocalist and songwriter Chris Eckman...

.

André Heller lives in Vienna and in Gardone Riviera

Gardone Riviera

Gardone Riviera is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy.-Main sights:* The Vittoriale degli Italiani is a former residence of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio. He donated it to the Italian State before his death...

, Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, and travels the world.
[

Selected events and projects

• KING-KONG-KING-MAYER-MAYER-LING — ein Stück Theater, Opening premiere of the Vienna Festival, Austria
• MENSCHEN AM ZENTRAL, Documentary about life at Vienna's Central Cemetery
• FLIC FLAC, a poetic variety show, tour through Europe
• TEATRO DE FOGO, in Lisbon, Portugal
• FEUERTHEATER, in front of the Berlin Reichstag, Germany
• MISSTRAUE DER IDYLLE, Floral picture for the International Garden Show at Berlin, Germany
• BEGNADETE KÖRPER, Great masters of the acrobatics schools in Anhui and Beijing, tour through Europe. Heller was the first non-Chinese artist to be allowed to work with Chinese master acrobats and to present their refined skills to the West.
• SALUT FÜR OLGA, a homage to the last masters of the dying art of variety shows, tour through Europe
• FLYING SCULPTURES, above 20 cities in Europe, 32 cities in America, and 7 cities in Asia
• LUNA LUNA, a poetic amusement park and a traveling territory of contemporary art
• LACHEN MACHEN, a clown parade, tour through Europe
• GIARDINO BOTANICO, Fondazione André Heller in Gardone Riviera, Italy
• BODY AND SOUL, a stage show with musicians, singers, dancers, and grotesque comedy artists from Harlem, Mubale, and New Orleans. New York and tour through Europe.
• WINTERGARTEN VARIETÉ, Tour through Europe
• CHINESE NATIONAL CIRCUS, World tour
• JAGMANDIR, The eccentric private theater of the Maharana of Udaipur, India
• SINKING GIANT, Floral sculpture with fountain in the park of Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
• WONDERHOUSE, on Broadway, New York, USA
• BAMBOO MAN, a 55-meter tall floating sculpture in Hong Kong harbor
• WINTERGARTEN VARIETÉ, Together with Bernhard Paul, inauguration of the theatre-building in Berlin
  Berlin Wintergarten theatre
  The Berlin Wintergarten theatre was a large variety theatre in Berlin that opened in approximately 1887 and was destroyed by bombs in June 1944. The name was eventually taken on by a theatre in Potsdamer Strasse in 1992....
  
  , Germany
• SEIN UND SCHEIN, at the Vienna Burgtheater, Austria
• MAGNETEN, Charismatic Roma and Sinti masters of the world-embracing gypsy culture, tour through Europe
• SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL WORLDS, Landscape as well as a series of subterranean wonder chambers for Swarovski
  Swarovski
  Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
  
  , in Wattens
  Wattens
  Wattens is a market community in Austria which is the home of the Swarovski Kristallwelten, dedicated to the history surrounding the company, the man himself Daniel Swarovski and exhibitions of the crystals.It attracts visitors from the world over....
  
  , Tyrol
  Tyrol (state)
  Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...
  
  , Austria
• BOAT OF SALT, on the Dead Sea in Israel
• THE MUTE PROPHET, Light sculpture, Ait Ben Haddou in Morocco
• YUMÉ — flight through dreams, a Japanese kaleidoscope, Tokyo and tour through Europe
• METEORIT, a place of amazement, wonder chambers on the Energy theme for the Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk, Essen, Germany
• BROCKHAUS 2000, Design of the 24-volume deluxe edition of this encyclopedia
• VOICES OF GOD, an event with spiritual singers, musicians, and dancers from 12 cultures, Marrakech, Morocco
• EARTH SPIRIT, Design of the WWF Pavilion for the EXPO 2000, Hanover, Germany
• WORLD CUP BIDDING, Production of the successful final bid of the German Football Association for the World Cup 2006, Zurich, Switzerland
• BLIND SPOT, Dokumentary about Hitler’s Secretary, Audience award Berlinale Filmfestival 2002, Germany
• IN THE HEART OF LIGHT — NIGHT OF THE PRIMA DONNAS, A poetic documentation of a myth conceived and produced by André Heller and adapted for the screen by Pepe Danquart
• FOREBODING/LA VOIX HUMAINE, The "Théâtre du Châtelet" in Paris was the venue for the staging of "Anticipation / La Voix Humaine", a cooperation between André Heller and Jessye Norman in October 2002.
• JESSYE NORMAN, a movie by André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer
• FOOTBALL-GLOBE, the architectural herald to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany; one tour in Germany, one tour internationally (Tokyo, Paris, Milan, Zurich)
• AFRIKA! AFRIKA!, African music, dance and acrobat show (performing 2005 – at least 2009)
• MAGNIFICO, Horse Show (since Feb 2011)

Awards

• 2004 Amadeus Austrian Music Award for Ruf und Echo

External links

• www.andreheller.com, official website
• André-Heller Fan-page (Archived 2009-10-25)

• Artevent — Viennese company headed by André Heller for the realisation of all kinds of art projects