EDITION 2013
OFFenes BERLIN
DESCRIPTIONS
October 25th
Miriam Jakob: Friday 1.23.1915 [sic] "as usual, sorry that I do not always..."
MIRIAM JAKOB: Friday 1.23.1915 [sic] "as usual, sorry that I do not always..." After last year's lecture performance "Malinowski" dealt with artistic-performative implications of the scientific method of participant observation, this time the inner conflicts of the anthropologist as well as the performer come into focus. Inspired by the scientists diaries that revealed Malinowski as a doubtful and hypochondriac person see-saw between his own expectations, self-disciplinary measures and inevitable failure, the performance will take the audience to a close up experience of voluntary imprisonment in the delusion of the jungle.
Miriam Jakob, anthropologist and performer, is exploring the expectations and inner borders of the audience and performers in installations, (lecture-) performances and videos. Her work creates spaces of desire, where the mechanisms of validation loose their meaning and the borders to the "Other" blur. Currently she is studying at the Inter-University for Dance Berlin. Felix Classen is a musician and producer. Occasionally he works for film & photo projects in the context of dance and performance.
October 25th
Lonski & Classen - concert
"Felix Classen and Lukas Lonski have been playing unique music since their childhood, however their recent compositions as well as their live shows take up position at Skeletons', Thom Yorke's or Talk Talk's side. Their independence in style, mathematical precision in the geometrical play of instruments and a warm lightness create sound drenched moments of pure spirit."
Songs by Lonski & Classen are so oddly transparent, like the first rays of sun in the early morning fog, so intimate, they may creep right under your skin. Yet whenever needed, they bring the most splendid, sweeping arrangements so matter-of-factly that we often don't notice them immediately. Felix Classen plays drums and also sings at times. Lukas Lonski plays guitar and sings almost always in such a wonderful willful manner that the words and sounds stick in our minds. When these musicians interact something between chamber pop and a furtively rampant electro sound comes into being: an idiosyncratic big city blues, though you can't quite say where you know it from- or if at all.
October 26th
Ana Mendes "Dance Play"
Ana Mendes is a playwright who became a performer by accident when she wrote 'Self-portrait', a play on her identity. She also works in visual arts - photography and video - and lives in London and Berlin. Ana studied Performance at Goldsmiths College, animation film at la Poudriére - École du Film d'Animation, in France, and Photography at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany. Her work revolves around the idea of movement and rhythm.
Dance Play
I walk slowly
because I come from far away
I walk slowly because
I come from Afghanistan
Which is far away
I walk slowly
Because I am basha posh
A girl who used to be a boy.
DANCE PLAY is a performance about life, movement and immigration. It's a work about the moment that we live in Europe now, with hope, revolution and capitalism.
Text, performance: Ana Mendes
Director: Claire Thill
Choreographer: Mu-Yi Kuo
Rehearsal
Support: PACT Zollverein
In Piwnica Kany there was organized an exhibition of Anna Mendes called "Das ist mein Gott"
October 26th
Das ist mein Gott - wernisa¿ wystawy autorstwa Any Mende
"Das ist mein Gott"- photography series, 45 X 30, color.
November 15th
MDVZ "Tanz Europe Express"- A dance play for non-dancers
MDVZ - 6 performers and one musician
Nobody could have found the six of us before at the same time in the same room/party/training/ club. MDVZ is a constellation of people who have been already working/partying/training together in small or bigger performance projects but never before all together at once. To name just a few of this projects: Tatwerk, idersprüchliche Abende, Katerett, Einzelkämpfer and the plays "Weltuntergang", "Torquato", "X/Schatten", "Table/Function", etc. Some of the members met for the very first time for the TEE project. "It's all about dancing. More exactly, about how do European young people dance.". Dancing is something all of us is doing quite often and, again, not only for artistic purposes. Dancing means also day by day life occasions were our bodies are moving just because it's a great pleasure to move without goals or expectations. That's why one of the rehearsals for TEE just took place at the Berghain club one night. We have had fun dancing together. we have also suffered dancing together. Pleasure, pain, fun, sadness, rage. well, this is how things are.
WHAT ABOUT TEE?
The question is. How do we dance? How, where, when do we, the young people, dance nowadays in Europe? Today, dancing relies on a decision; we choose what to dance, and this is really relevant. It's our own personal decision to dance. That explains also why most of the times we dance alone. Maybe surrounded by thousands of people but. definitely alone. Are we sure we dance ourselves? This would be the second question that leads to the next and final one: How are we?,these Europeans who shouldn't stop dancing otherwise we would get lost.
"Tanz Europe Express" is a two years old project created entirely in Tatwerk by some of its participants. It could finally come into reality after some unsuccessful attempts and lots of problems. It was born accidentally while three of us where dancing, or trying to dance, a really weird song in an empty bar. "How do we dance nowadays?" was the question that arose of that funny experience. After some months, the question turned into something more imprecise: "But... why and when do we dance? Where can we dance in our day by day life? Together or alone? What has hanged?". Some new ideas got involved in the project: the political situation in Europe (of course), Kraftwerk's anthem "Trans Europe Express" and the promise of a bright future, technology, urban loneliness, our parents and us, etc. Afterall, what is emerging of it all is just a simple question: Does NEW necessarily mean GOOD?
Review: Kinga Cie¶luk (Teatralia) - http://www.teatralia.com.pl/quo-vadis-rotkappchen/
November 16th
Mariona Naudin- "V.I.P"
What does my grandfather have to do with Fidel Castro? What can happen if you look at your family photos as if they weren't your family? Who is the woman in the photo? VIP, a performance about humble people, world disasters, cosmogony, causality, casualty, fate, love, death and all those necessary ingredients to make a performance attractive.
www.marionanaudin.blogspot.com
Review: Kinga Cie¶luk (Teatralia) - http://www.teatralia.com.pl/quo-vadis-rotkappchen/
January 3rd
Cobratheater.cobra - "VICE VERSA"
Im Spätsommer 1939 wurde Vsevolod Meyerhold von Staatssicherheit der UdSSR verhaftet. An seinen Freund Molotov schrieb er aus dem Gefängnis: "Die Beamten begannen Gewalt gegen mich anzuwenden, einen kranken 65-jährigen." Ich frage mich, wie ich mir das vorstellen soll. Ich sehe eine durchorganisierte Erschießungskommandoszene vor meinem inneren Auge, wie im Geschichtsunterricht, wenn die Stalinzeit besprochen wurde. Ich sehe das treudoofe Gesicht von Sergej Eisenstein, wie er im gleichen Jahr (1939!) für Stalin "Die Walküre" im Bolschoi inszenierte. Das war Stalins Strafe dafür, dass seine Produktionen über die Jahre weit mehr gekostet als eingespielt hatten. Boris Shumyatsky, der Produzent der Mosfilm, wurde hingegen erschossen. Was sehe ich noch? Ich sehe einen Braunbären, der einen nackten Mann am Strand umarmt. Ich sehe eine Frau, die aussieht als sei SIE das Kind auf der Schokoladenpackung. Und ich sehe wie ich mit dem Gesicht auf dem Boden liege, weil ich über die Teppichkante gestolpert bin, als ich zur Türe herein kam. Wie wollen wir Zusammenleben? Wie kann ich dir erklären, wie ich wurde, was ich bin? Was geht ab?
Tiefsinnigen Fragen wollen wir nachgehen, wenn wir am 03. und 04. Januar zu Gast im Kana sind. Wir werden mit dem Regionalexpress aus Berlin kommen, zusammen mit einer Menge Gastarbeitern, die für das Wochenende nach Hause fahren in den Oderbruch, in die Stille der Novemberfelder, in das Dickicht.
Früher habe ich gerne behauptet: "Meine Hütte steht am Rande des Dorfes, ich weiß von nichts!" und nun: "VICE VERSA!"
Review: Marta Madej "At-tractions'?Montage" - [read PDF version]
January 3rd
DYZMATRONIK
It's quite hard to define their style of music. They are escaping from giving them a second name. They are fast as storm. They are brave as bears. They like to drink a beer. But they are very brave. Best is to listen by your own, for example at:
January 4th
Workshops for the organizers of the festivals: leading Anne Herwanger
THEATRE FESTIVAL ORGANISATION: Crazy, Complex, Challenging
Where to put the main focus: On aesthetics, space, the offspring,.?
How to select the artists: Call-for-proposals, selection by a jury or invitation by the artistic direction? How to compile the program: Coproductions, guest performances, own productions or a combination of all three? How to promote the festival: Program, flyer, Facebook-event, Twitter-wall or perhaps - everything at once? In this workshop about festival organization we will discuss all those questions and a lot more focusing mainly on theatre and performance festivals. We will examine different ways of organizing, programming and curating festivals. We will find out where the "special atmosphere" of festivals comes from and what our ideal concept of a theatre festival is. Furthermore we will see which fields of activity are important to plan and execute a theatre festival: Conception, programming, financing, relation to the city, PR / Marketing and management.
Since Anne Herwanger, the instructor of the workshop, works mainly in Germany, it will be also interesting to compare the theatre festival scene of Germany and Poland and too examine similarities and differences of working processes and curatorial visions in both countries.
January 4th
DICTAPHONE
Formed in the late 90s in Berlin, Dictaphone was born by Brussels-bred multi-instrumentalist Oliver Doerell and clarinet / saxophone player Klaus Bru. After Bru left the project 2000, Doerell found a new partner in Berlins Roger Döring, who shares the love for the Brussels based music of the 80ties. The first album called M.=ADDICTION was released on the label City_Centre_Offices in 2002. It was highly acclaimed by listeners and journalists. Malka Spigel ( Minimal Compact ) gave her voice to the track "Tempelhof". 2002 Dictaphone made their first 15 concert tour. In 2004 the NACHT EP was released, 4 tracks with guest appearences of Stephan Wöhrmann ( SWOD ) and Piotr Rybkowski. In 2006 the VERTIGO II album was released . The release concert took place in the Neue National Gallery / Berlin. DICTAPHONE played shows in more than 20 countries worldwide with festival appearances at Mutek / Transmediale / Unsound / Benicassim... In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. The third album "Poems from a Rooftop" was released on Sonic Pieces in 2012 .
