Performance work

2024

Paris, 1935: a pulsating metropolis at the centre of Europe. The city has become a place of exile for thousands who had to leave Germany after the National Socialists seized power in 1933. As early as the 1920s, Lion Feuchtwanger was one of the first who recognised how dangerous Hitler and his party were going to be. In his novel Exil, completed in 1939, he managed to bring the time before the outbreak of the Second World War to life – for the coming generations who would not be able to comprehend how most people did nothing although the brute force of the National Socialist rulers became more and more apparent. Feuchtwanger’ characters struggle with the question of what it means to do “the right thing” in this situation and tell stories of careerism, opportunism, oppression, moral courage, love and betrayal.

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2023

infinity rug offers a moment where sound, collective learning and intimate care come together to forge a space of togetherness. You are invited to bring your own rug to contribute to a rug-constellation. Lay down and get cosy with us, drift off with us. Bringing the domestic to the public realm, we will tentatively explore new ways of being-together and offer a space for reflection, rejuvenation and introspection. Through the evening of Saturday, 02.12., until the morning of Sunday, 03.12., we guide you through a soundscape of field recordings, ambient, experiment and deep-mind music, interwoven with ceremonial performances, texts and poetry, scents, textiles and food offerings.

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2022

Never in our collective memory can we remember a time of such catastrophic climate events, and paired with a loss of faith in much (if not all) of political leadership, it is hard to know where to gather strength to continue working for the protection and preservation of all life. For us, being in community, listening and sharing music and knowledge has always bee that source of perseverance.

Aaron contributed to infinity rug with a round table of unusual urban treasures, at which foraging anecdotes and knowledge about the medicinal and magical properties of the plants and mushrooms are exchanged.

photo by Ali Bay

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PARASIGHTseeing is a performance-based exhibition project series by Jasmin Halama and Frederik Britzlmair, whose second part is presented in the Großer Wasserspeicher. In its investigation of parasitic strategies, PARASIGHTseeing elaborates ways of theorizing systems. But it also invites participation into a parasitized system of its own.
In the characters’ perpetual movements, systems emerge and dissolve within the wider system of the Großer Wasserspeicher. An osmotic/symbiotic relation between the parasites is established through time and space—movement allows for the embodied theorization of organism and machine. In this self-multiplying embodiment, parasitism doubles as theory and practice. It permits an interrogation of the definitional boundaries of organic matter, and the social dimension of these boundaries. PARASIGHTseeing offers, then, the embodied experience of parasitism—of the dynamics of symbiosis, organic outgrowth, and the social strategies that can be gleaned from these. (Jude Macannuco)

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Inspired by the remaining traces of the industrial past in the urban space of Berlin, choreographer I Jung Lim examines how the historical spirit of this past affects society. In this project, she approaches the second significant moment of German ideology in an artistic way. From the perspective of an outside researcher, she unearths hidden social leftovers and cultural relics and interweaves the socio-cultural background of the industrial age – an age characterized by materialistic thinking – with archetypal images. By connecting industrial objects and human bodies, her goal is to create a landscape painting of the body and some of its companion symbols.

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The run in the wheels of late capitalism is fading out. What follows, is a collaborative preparation of the ground for a sustainable future. Energy transition means retreating from fossil fuels and shifting more and more to regenerative sources of energy.
If we look at this process through the perspective of the body, questions arise: How can I protect myself from exhaustion and end (self)exploitation? What helps me to regenerate my energy? What are the sources I access for this purpose? How can we support each other in this process?

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2021

“Practicing Empathy” is a series developed by choreographer Yasmeen Godder and her company since 2019, which has produced a variety of projects that explore forms of empathy. “Practicing Empathy #2by2” was created in response to the first lockdown in spring 2021. The non-verbal interactive movement format invites eight audience members to each dive into an individual shared experience with one of eight dancers in the studios of the Mousonturm, in doing so develop new perspectives on the rules of hygiene and distancing. How can connections, intimacy and emotional affinity be established despite a distance?

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Influenced by the disciplines dance, circus and music, the traditional image of masculinity is questioned in a sarcastic and theatrical way. What does it mean to be a man, what effects do education, emancipation and equality have on masculinity? Six men of different nationalities examine behavior, expectations and traditions.