In her comprehensive project "The Choreography of Labour", which was developed during a research fellowship at the Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Romana Schmalisch deals with various historical and contemporary strategies of training and optimising the capacity for labour. On the one hand, the project examines the techniques of the choreographer Rudolf Laban, who used forms of dance in England in the 1940s and 50s for the purpose of increasing physical efficiency in the production process. Secondly, it explores various programmes in Parisian training centres and employment offices where job seekers are prepared for the demands of the labour market, often through the use of creativity as a means of self-management.

As part of an ongoing series of lecture-performances, "The Choreography of Labour #VI" now focuses on the use of art for non-artistic purposes in order to address and critically question its possibilities, limits and risks.

Romana Schmalisch studied Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. She took part in several scholarship programmes as a researcher, including in Maastricht and London. In her artistic work, she deals with the different medial strategies of film and the question of the depictability of historical processes and social structures.
In 2006, Sabine Maria Schmidt curated the exhibition "Reconstructing Futures" as Romana Schmalisch's first solo museum presentation at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg.

Sponsored by the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf.