creative direction
Since 2025, Max has been the Creative Director and the Artistic Director of the Video Department at Schauspiel Köln, a German publicly funded repertory theatre working at the intersection of theatre, visual art, and media. He led the rebranding and now focuses on the continued development of the SPL KLN brand.
Over the years, Max has worked closely with artists, musicians and theatre makers including Kay Voges (Volkstheater Wien, Schauspiel Köln), Marco Pogo (TURBOBIER), Marten McFly, Lemur / Herr von Grau and Ulrike Schild.
video art
From 2020 to 2025, Hammel worked as Artistic Director of the Video Department and Video Artist in Residence at the Volkstheater Wien, where he integrated multimedia into live productions, concerts and performances.
Working as a video artist, Hammel has collaborated with acclaimed figures such as Paul McCarthy, Werner Herzog, Jonathan Meese, Calexico, Danger Dan, Lydia Haider and Claudia Bauer.
He received the Video Artist of the Year award from Theater Heute (2024) and the Faust Prize (2025) for his contribution to RCE.
Hammel has been a video art lecturer at Temple University Tokyo, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and the University of Art and Design Linz.
political engagement
Previously, Hammel worked as Creative Director for The Beer Party in Austria, contributing to various political campaigns. The party placed third in the 2022 Austrian presidential election and has been represented in Vienna’s district councils since the 2020 municipal elections.
In a subsequent role, he served as a district councillor for Vienna’s 15th district from 2020 to 2024, where he worked on closing post-pandemic vaccination gaps among children, introducing traffic-calming measures on school routes, and advocating for a ban on the mixing of beer with lemonade, commonly known as “Radler”.
commercial work
Since 2009, Hammel has worked as a director and cinematographer, creating commercials for clients such as McDonald’s, T-Mobile and Aldi; music videos for artists including Danger Dan, TURBOBIER and Aut of Orda; and narrative social media content for brands and institutions such as Yamaha, The Beer Party and Volkstheater Wien.
He collaborated with international agencies such as VICE, Dentsu and Jung von Matt, as well as investigative journalism organizations including Correctiv and Dossier, and broadcasters such as ZDF and ORF. Hammel filmed across diverse locations including Germany, Portugal, France, Brazil, China and Japan.
His video work has been showcased at events such as the Biennale de Lyon and the Diagonale in Graz. He was also nominated for the Young Lions Award in Cannes in 2017 and 2018.
education
In 2016, Hammel earned a degree in Feature Film Screenwriting from ESEC Film School (Paris). He also graduated from high school somewhere in 2009. Let’s not forget that.
IMPRESSUM
Max Hammel / Cologne (GER)
contact: info@maxhammel.com
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