LEA CONNERT

Performing Arts Producer

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© Fiyori Ghebreweldi, Laurens Maria Bauer & Hanna Osen

Head of Production | Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel | 2021

Dear guests, now that, here in Hamburg at least, there are more vaccinated people than rapid antigen pop-up test centers, an end to the pandemic is imaginable and the next Summer Festival is in sight: the program is online - and it is anything but a slimmed-down version. Breezing along on the tailwind from last year (where we were able to hold a complete, corona-safe festival), we stoically continued planning, enduring lockdowns, exhaustion and every phrase that starts with "home". This was not without the support from artists who continued working during the crisis, creating new, alternative perspectives for the future - and this festival, about which you will know basically everything after the following 1.925 words.

We start on August 4 with a world premiere from Canadian artist (Leslie) Feist. Like all musicians, she literally lost her stage to the virus. So, Feist wrote new songs and thought about how to get back to performing, together with stage designer Rob Sinclair (who also designed David Byrne's AMERICAN UTOPIA, one of the most brilliantly staged concert of recent years). MULTITUDES is the result and is Feist's offering to the audience to reconquer the stage, together and mindfully, in an intimate setting with her and her new songs. Communal joy! Togetherness! Just like the slogan of this year’s festival. Our community of the living, however, especially in the pandemic, constantly faces the deceased. In REQUIEM: FIRE IN THE AIR OF THE EARTH, Kyle Abraham reminds us of the dead in such a rousing way that it is clear to see why he is one of the most exciting American choreographers today: Abraham casually switches from the ballet pose to the hip-hop move and offers a Black perspective on the present - and on the classic of Western mourning music: Mozart's REQUIEM. The funeral mass sounds impressively new here, in a futuristic version by club music avant-gardist Jlin. The Lacrimosa from the REQUIEM, in a sense Mozart's musical "light at the end of the tunnel," also features at an earlier point in the festival, as a leitmotif in the pharmaceutical setting of Christoph Marthaler's new theater production DAS WEINEN (DAS WÄHNEN) (Crying (The Vaining)), based on texts by Swiss artist Dieter Roth. The much-raved play of the hour or "Marthaler at his best" (Deutschland Radio) represents the summit meeting of two Swiss artists who have found the extraordinary in the everyday, expanding the concept of art and consolidating an axis between Hamburg and Switzerland. Dieter Roth, who shaped and changed the art of the 20th century with paintings from mould and sculptures from chocolate, set up an entire museum of his own works spanning his creative period in a Hamburg villa before his death. Simply called Dieter Roth Museum, this is where the festival journey continues: we have asked interdisciplinary artists such as Annika Kahrs and Felix Kubin to engage with Roth's work in the form of an audio guide through the Roth Museum. It is a pathos-free kind of soulful humor that connects Roth and Marthaler; and that also characterizes the work of Swiss artist Thom Luz. Asked how he would describe what his and Christoph Marthaler's works often have in common, Luz said: "Whenever something is missing or language is not enough, people start singing." This notion is depicted in his through-composed theatre production LIEDER OHNE WORTE (Songs Without Words), showing how people can survive crises and accidents with wit and a great deal of music. Being human, it's not easy - but easier to cope with in Swiss dialect, as the supergroup Dino Brandão, Faber and Sophie Hunger show us with their album ICH LIEBE DICH (I Love You): "Ich ha probiert mich selbst zsi, aber ich han g'merkt es isch de Horror" sings Faber with melancholic self-irony („I tried to be myself, but realized it was horror”). The trio is one of four collaborations with and in our little partner venue at the harbor, Hamburg’s new landmark Elbphilharmonie (which will also host performances featuring our friends from North America Martha and Rufus Wainwright, stargaze with the Dirty Projectors and the Turkish music avant-gardist Gaye Su Akyol).

But back to dialect: Robert Walser wrote his play DER TEICH (The Pond) in Bärndütsch (Bern dialect). It is the story of a young boy who, feeling unloved, fakes his own suicide. The play is staged by Gisèle Vienne, a theatre art specialist for mental abysses, in a French translation with German surtitles - and a sensational acting duo: Ruth Vega Fernandez and Adèle Haenel ("Portrait of a Lady on Fire"). A disturbingly delightful chamber play that can also be read as a commentary on the psychological strain experienced by families during the pandemic. The view on another species under psychological strain is directed by Norwegian how-to-improve-theater-group Susie Wang. In their latest work LICHT UND LIEBE (Light and Love), a German couple with sunburn finds itself in the vacation spot of their dreams. This bliss doesn't last long, however, in the Ibsen Award-nominated play, quickly unravelling into a parable of the longing for vacation, exoticism and normality in times of a pandemic. Festival regular Miet Warlop brings us a similar kind of bitterly-wicked theatre, certainly not suitable for those audiences who enjoy dozing off during performances. With AFTER ALL SPRINGVILLE, she presents a new staging of one of her greatest form and color spectacles, which has seen her conquer European stages for the past decade. Expect moving tables and exploding fuse-boxes galore. From this point, it is only a small step into real magic, provided by Hamburg's magician of all magicians, Manuel Muerte, under the more-than-fitting title ILLUSIONS. Yes, yes, we love to entertain you too. And that's why we're now leaving the festival grounds of Kampnagel and heading to the epicentre of entertainment, St. Pauli and the legendary club Uebel&Gefährlich. There, the queer Austrian guerrilla folk-theatre group Nesterval transports Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks into the informal subculture, supported by the Kampnagel karaoke veteran group Queereeoké: SEX DRUGS & BUDD'N'BROOKS is an elaborate, immersive entertainment show, suitable even for people who find it impossible to connect Thomas Mann or theatre at all with fun. From the North German merchant saga, the festival moves on to the former Kaufhof warehouse in the city centre. Left empty by the pandemic, it will be occupied by the Hamburg headphone performance specialists LIGNA with a new performance piece running for three weeks: DIE GESPENSTER DES KONSUMISMUS (The Ghosts of Consumerism) is a performative journey through a part of Hamburg's history and into the future of inner-cities. In times of social distancing, these areas have become problem zones and sources of contagion, just like proximity, togetherness and coming together; in other words, elements that constitute our very society. In THIS IS NOT NORMAL, summer festival legend Juan Dominguez, together with Arantxa Martínez, will bring interpersonal closeness back to the city centre, through their performance of living sculptures in public places. This piece is one of a total of 14 outdoor projects which will see the summer festival play throughout the city, as part of Hamburg’s culture summer: With the HAMBURG SEA WOMEN PARADE, Geheimagentur presents an overdue feminist perspective on seafaring; Yolanda Gutiérrez and artists from former German colonies intervene at the Bismarck Monument on St. Pauli; Rimini Protokoll turn the city into a stage with artistic audio walks; A Wall is a Screen project short dance films on building facades throughout Hamburg; and Abhishek Thapar gives a voice and a face to invisible, exiled kitchen helpers in Hamburg's restaurants: BELASTBAR UND SAUBER, DRINGEND GESUCHT (Resilient and Clean, Urgently Needed) is being realized as part of the EXIL HEUTE program with the Körber Foundation and uses a local example to open up a global perspective on the pandemic. There it is again, the pandemic, because rarely has the connection between local restrictions and global movement been made so clear to us as in the case of infection - and climate change. At the end of the day, we are a global community, and what is happening in the Amazon right now affects us as well, no doubt. Brazilian artist Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha tells us about this with her techno-shamanistic piece ALTAMIRA 2042, in which she gives a voice to an endangered river from the Brazilian rainforest, creating a feminist vision of the future for the year 2042.

The future, another pandemic topic, not only because of the hypothetical course of infection curves and intensive care bed capacities, but also because of the digitalisation of life, thinking, working, everything. A topic where there are lots of different views to be heard, but which suffers from a male dominance that often leads to the marginalisation of more interesting voices. That's why we're hosting our opulent conference, THE FUTURE OF CODE POLITICS, where feminist programmers and groups like Indigenous AI, Google-fired AI specialist Timnit Gebru, or Africanfuturism author Nnedi Okorafor will come together to discuss the ecological consequences and decolonisation of technologies. And because we are sort of serious curators, there will also be some appropriate artistic works on the complex topic of digitalisation. But don't worry, no online theatre, but rather a virtual reality piece I AM (VR) from forward-looking theatre artist Susanne Kennedy, which will let visitors meet a digital oracle of Delphi. Or an international hack-a-thon by visual artist Christoph Faulhaber. And from Hamburg artist Kotkta Gudmon, there is a walk-in installation at the harbour and an elaborate virtual reality staging in the main church of St. Katharinen. Speaking of churches: there's light at the end of the tunnel, not only musically with Mozart, but also with two concerts in St. Gertrud’s Church near Mundsburg. First with Graindelavoix, the avant-garde vocal ensemble for early music from Antwerp. You won't hear a better or more thrilling interpretation of Renaissance polyphonic vocal music than in their concert production THE LIBERATION OF THE GOTHIC. And Michael Schönheit, the Leipzig Gewandhaus organist himself, is coming to St. Gertrud’s Church to discover the contemporary organ, infused with the spirit of improvisation together with the young indie music artist P.A. Hülsenbeck.

So now we’re up to 8837 characters; but to be fair, it is the most extensive summer festival to date with 13 world premieres, of which 5 are major pieces on stage. A festival with a long preface – and with productions showing that art can only be relevant for the future if it is aware of the present. That also applies to the last example from the festival program and the grand hall k6: four works of style-defining choreographers combined on one evening for and by the Ballet national de Marseille, newly under the direction of the summer festival heroes (LA)HORDE: Lucinda Childs, the icon of postmodern dance, meets the form-stressing expressionist Tânia Carvalho, meets France's ballroom great Lasseindra Ninja, meets Belfast social realist and last year's Summer Festival highlight Oona Doherty.

Finally, we would need another four-digit amount of words to introduce this year’s biggest festival venue: the AVANT-GARDEN, Hamburg's most beautiful art leisure park, designed by JASCHA&FRANZ, featuring resident artists JAJAJA, and delicious delights from the Kampnagel house-and-heart restaurant Peacetanbul. On several stages there will be a daily changing, sprawling programme including concerts by album-of-the-year-title-predecessors like Sophia Kennedy, book presentations by Johanna Adorján or Juliane Liebert, the classic format SOLICASINO by Migrantpolitan and several performances by festival-evergreen Canadian musician Josh "Socalled" Dolgin. And by the way, on weekends there is always an avant-garde-can-be-fun children's program in the afternoon.

Great, so you've read all 1.912 words till now but are still confused. Then please, just think again with Swiss serenity of Robert Walser, who, according to Thom Luz, is said to have uttered during a walk through Hamburg: "Theatre should calm the too confused and confuse the too calmed." The fact that there are people and institutions who concur with that sentence and support our festival through ideological and financial sponsorship is a great good fortune and the reason why we are able to carry out our work at all. Thank you!

And to you guests who have read this far (or skipped to the end of the text): you’re our favourites anyway and we are looking forward to seeing you in the garden very soon,

András Siebold & the Summer Festival Team

Download: Timetable PDF (german only).

FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg / Kultursommer Hamburg / Fonds Darstellende Künste /  NPN - NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ /Allianz Kulturstiftung / Bündnis Internationaler Produktionshäuser / Ilse und Dr. Horst Rusch-Stiftung / Mara und Holger Cassens-Stiftung / Hamburgische Kulturstiftung / VON BERLICHINGEN & PARTNER Steuerberatungsgesellschaft / Botschaft von Kanada in Berlin / Österreichisches Kulturforum Berlin / Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) / Performing ArtsHub Norway, Norwegian Arts Abroad (NAA) / Wikimedia Deutschland / Institut Francais, Ministerium de la culture / Kulturstiftung des Bundes

FESTIVAL PARTNER

Körber-Stiftung / Zeit-Stiftung / NDR / Nemetschek Stiftung / Gunda-Werner-Institut in der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung / Elbphilharmonie / St. Gertrud Kirche / Dieter Roth Foundation / Heikotel / Apartment 040

MEDIA PARTNER

NDR 90,3, Szene, ByteFM

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© Hannah Osen & Paul Voggenreiter | CGI: Jonas Liebermann

Head of Production | Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel | 2020

Dear guests, the good news is: The Summer Festival 2020 will take place — as a special edition built on three secure key elements. These are a somewhat reduced indoor program, a big program outside in the garden, and performance off Kampnagel in the city of Hamburg and in the World Wide Web. The full program has been online since 14 July, further updates are not impossible.

That's because this year everything is different. In March, we had to discard an almost completely finished program with international and national premieres of many non-European artists. All over a sudden we found ourselves in aseptic home offices, trying to develop a vision and a plan, always “on sight” with virologist’s podcasts in our ears, dealing with various future foresights and new contacts at the public health department. Meanwhile, other summer festivals were moved to the Internet or cancelled at all. Supported by Hamburg Senator for Culture Mr. Carsten Brosda, we kept on developing new plans and security concepts.  

As a result, we are reducing capacities in the halls to place our audience at a safe distance — whilst presenting an international program with some world premieres and award-winning shows, that points towards the future of live art. To avoid few people sitting on single seats, we encourage you to buy multiple tickets in one ordering process — for people with whom you want to and are allowed to sit together (at the moment a maximum of ten people is granted).  

This time, also our Festival Avant-Garden will have a security concept. Capacities are also reduced, while the program is extended: On all days of the festival, there will be outdoor installations and performances as well as music, literature and Las Vegas shows on three stages — a total of over 50 contributions to summer happiness. Since capacities are generally limited even in the open air program, there will be tickets on sale for the garden at a symbolic price of 3 euros. People who have tickets for performances in the halls on the same day will still be able to enter the festival garden free of charge if there is sufficient capacity.  

Outside Kampnagel, there will be performances in the city and on the internet, the latter mainly with antidotes for the zoom-fatigue and streaming overdose: elaborate productions for the digital space that are smart and entertaining, require a ticket to participate, and proof that online theater does not primarily cause the desire for theater offline.

OK, as of mid July, all this is on safe ground. Instead of an extensive program booklet, there is a short program flyer available. And we will update and inform you in advance about unexpected and practical aspects of your feel-good stay with us, our newsletter keeps you updated best. SARS-CoV-2 will still be a topic for a while — and with this special edition of the Summer Festival we try to show a perspective on how theater can be possible under pandemic conditions. Our finger stays on the pulse of the present and our gaze is directed towards the future. Therefore, the program’s content is also shaped by the current situation. Plays about isolation, pandemics, evil or the end of the world react to the present in terms of content; and with three very high-profile “Pandemic Talks”, we expand the perspectives on the new ground of facts.  

We look forward to you and the summer!

The Best optimistic wishes,

András Siebold & Team

Find the festival program's web version below or download the time table HERE.

https://www.kampnagel.de/en/sommerfestival/current/

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Tour Management | The Song of Roland: The Arabic version by Wael Shawky | Louvre Abu Dhabi | Théâtre du Châtelet Paris | 2020

Inspired by one of the oldest works of French literature La Chanson de Roland (the song of the Roland) and the French Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf’s 1983 book The Crusades through Arab Eyes, Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s work blends the cultures and traditions of medieval Europe with those of the Arabian Gulf. Set against a backdrop designed by Shawky, The Song of Roland features more than 20 singers and musicians performing in the classical Arabic ‘fidjeri’ style, which first developed more than 800 years amongst fishermen in the Arabian Gulf. Combining history and theatre with art, music and myth, the work interrogates stereotypes associated with the history of the Crusades and reflects it from an Arab perspective. 

Foto: Janto Djassi 

https://www.louvreabudhabi.ae/en/programmes/performing-arts/performing-arts-1

https://www.chatelet.com/en/programmation/season-2020-2021/the-song-of-roland/

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Head of Production | Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel | 2019 

Dear Guests, as far as the future is concerned, well-known science fiction author William Gibson makes it clear that his books are not predictions or speculations about what is to come, but “take the temperature of the present”. For Gibson, science fiction is a literary toolkit to describe an increasingly wired present. If now this festival – aesthetically and content-wise brimming with the present – deals with the future, dystopia is obvious. Because it does describe catastrophic conditions in the future as direct results of our present actions. Which also means, that, theoretically, we now could still prevent the foreseeable hell.

This applies to no other topic as much as to climate change, which encompasses all current human issues from nutrition to migration, and moves an entire next generation against VW and the likes, not only on Fridays. The American author David Wallace-Wells has written the matching compulsory book for all thinking (and especially living) people: “The Uninhabitable Earth” is a groundbreaking summary of facts and scientific hypotheses on global warming. Wallace-Wells will talk about this as a guest at the festival conference of journalist Hannes Grassegger, and in addition, climate scientist Mojib Latif will give a lecture. Dystopias though, are often delivered through big pictorial narratives, through which we first grasp the future. This demonstrates a new largescale stage work by the Belgian theatrical iconoclast Kris Verdonck, and a film program by the newly appointed Berlinale program director Mark Peranson.

Perhaps the praying mantises – as on the cover of this program booklet – will be the last to jump into the wormhole of posthuman genesis. Insects, however, are also the first exhausted victims of global warming. So it‘s a good thing that the retail tycoon Walmart has just patented robotic bees. God is a Silicon Valley technologist anyway, and humans will soon be on permanent vacation. Or at least they don‘t have to be on stage themselves  anymore, like the German bestselling author Thomas Melle with his bipolar disease. In an impressive piece by Rimini Protokoll, he is replaced by a humanoid robot and gives a positive interpersonal example of body and machine. Maybe we simply have to think bigger into the future like Stephen Hawking, who, in view of the destruction of the earth‘s atmosphere, expected us to colonize other planets to survive. That the extraterrestrials might also have a tone in the matter of human history of colonization, shows SPACE – THE 3RD SEASON, Josh “Socalled” Dolgin‘s gorgeous puppet-musical-series’ third part. And if you don‘t want to wait for Elon Musk‘s Mars expedition, but still are adventurous, you might take off into other spheres with the JAJAJAs, or book a trip with musical virtuoso Kid Koala’s SATELLITE. This piece is quite family friendly, which doesn‘t apply to a visit to the museum of Norwegian group Susie Wang: in their exciting horror illusion theatre MUMMY BROWN, a black hole and objects from outer space are exhibited, which the pregnant museum visitor better not have touched. The piece is part of Susie Wang‘s horror trilogy about the human relationship to nature and the female body. The fact that the female body can be bold, multi-faceted and dazzling is best shown by the feminist pop icon Peaches, who has been questioning social power relations for 20 years and will present one of a total of eight festival world premieres (of which three, for the first time, will be produced for the large hall K6): In her stage work with almost 40 participants, Peaches will create a (less dystopian) vision for the future of feminism. Moreover, the queer art pioneer opens her first institutional solo exhibition in the Kunstverein and presents an accompanying program with a lustful vaudeville show and four excessive club evenings.

Often it is the clubs, that are nucleuses for social change and safe spaces for young people and queers, even in repressive systems. This also applies to the famous Bassiani club in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where brutal police raids in 2018 triggered expressions of solidarity and protests throughout Europe. An event that also serves as a backdrop for the festival’s opening piece in the big hall, MARRY ME IN BASSIANI, by the French media art collective (LA)HORDE: a spectacular stage overpowering with 15 former dancers of the Georgian National Ballet about dance as a medium of peaceful resistance. (LA)HORDE, who have just been appointed as new directors of the prestigious Ballet de Marseille, will also present a live art installation on resistance and affirmation in the huge Kampnagel Vorhalle. This is only one example of the festival‘s expanded concept of art. The impulses that arise from overlapping genres will also sparkle in the collaboration between Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton and musician Hauschka: Barton, who radically rejuvenates dance worldwide, will rehearse for two months in Hamburg with Hauschka and a large ensemble for their festival world premiere WHERE THERE‘S FORM. These and other world premieres, such as the one with Carsten “Erobique” Meyer on the underexposed pop cultural heritage of the ‘70s GDR music, or new discoveries such as the masked Russian performers of Vasya Run, are only possible through great supporters an cooperation partners: The Elbphilharmonie hosts the three Kampnagel accomplices Soap&Skin, Chilly Gonzales (who’s also a close collaborator of Peaches), as well as the Aarhus Symfoniorkester with the Bell Orchestre. The latter features Richard Reed Parry, whom we also present with an immersive concert at the Hamburg Planetarium as part of the NEW INFINITY series in collaboration with Berliner Festspiele. As always, there is much more madness to discover, please click through!

The space shuttle is ready; we’ll take off daily in the Avant-Garden with Migrantpolitan & Co and will end up every night in the club (with a program ranging from Japanese Psych-Rock to the avant-garde legend Charlemagne Palestine). Big thanks to all who have trusted and supported us so far, and to you, ready to fly with us into the future.

See you soon, András Siebold & The Summer Festival Team

https://www.kampnagel.de/en/sommerfestival/current/

© Design by The Laboratory of Manuel Bürger: Simon Schindele, Manuel Bürger

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Director, Head of Production | Wir treiben die Liebe auf die Weide | Kampnagel Hamburg | Festspielhaus Hellerau | HAU Berlin | 2019-2020

Konzerthappening über das musikalische Erbe der DDR jenseits geschichtsvergessender Ostalgie

2019 ist 30 Jahre Mauerfall. Anlass für Carsten „Erobique“ Meyer, bekannt und geliebt für seine 1-Mann Live-Disco Ekstasen und Filmmusik (u.a. „Tatortreiniger“), Trümmer-Dandy Paul Pötsch und Regisseurin Lea Connert, sich mit einem blinden Fleck der deutschen Kulturgeschichte zu beschäftigen: dem musikalischen DDR-Erbe der 60er und 70er Jahre. Damals entstanden Songs mit einem Bekenntnis zu Jazz, Afrobeat, Schlager, Soul, Tropicália und Funk, die so rein gar nichts mit dem grauen Klischee-Bild der DDR zu tun haben. Diese Kompositionen und Texte aus dem Sozialismus, flogen so haarscharf an der Zensur vorbei, dass sie gerade noch als Poesie durchgingen und grooven so unverschämt hart, dass man damit locker jede Disco zwischen Wismar und Konstanz in ihre Einzelteile zerlegen kann. In WIR TREIBEN DIE LIEBE AUF DIE WEIDE re-interpretiert eine Showband um Meyer und Pötsch mit Polly Lapkovskaja, Marcel Römer, Pola Lia Schulten und Überraschungsgästen Stücke von wichtigen Musiker*innen wie Uschi Brüning, Veronika Fischer, Nina Hagen und Manfred Krug. Angereichert mit dokumentarischem Material und Texten, entsteht ein intensives Konzerthappening, das die besondere Bedeutung der Musik, ihre versteckte Widerständigkeit und softe Subversivität feiert.

Abendzettel als PDF-Download hier.

Idee, Dramaturgie, Musikalische Leitung: Carsten “Erobique” Meyer, Paul Pötsch

Arrangement, Musikalische Umsetzung: Carsten “Erobique” Meyer, Paul Pötsch, Polly Lapkovskaja (POLLYESTER), Marcel Römer, Pola Lia Schulten

Regie: Lea Connert

Bühnenbild: Isabelle Kaiser

Kostüm: Isabelle Kaiser, Benjamin Burgunder

Bühnenbau: Leo Rau

Videodesign: Rosanna Graf

Gäste: Bernd Begemann, Pascal Finkenauer, Sidney Frenz, Juno Meinecke, DJ Patex, Jan Schnoor, Albrecht Schrader, Anna Suhr mit special appearance von DAS BO

PRODUKTION Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel KOPRODUKTION HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden GEFÖRDERT VOM Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien und durch die Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.

Foto: Nico Ueckermann

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Head of Production | Hajusom e.V. | Azimut | Kampnagel Hamburg, Sophiensaele Berlin | 2019

Link zu den Videos

Link zu den Fotos

Link zur Presse

Nie zuvor in seiner 20-jährigen Geschichte ist Hajusom so tief in die Vergangenheit seiner Performer navigiert wie im aktuellen Bühnenstück AZIMUT dekolonial – Ein Archiv performt *. Die jungen Darsteller zwischen 9 und 34 Jahren entdecken das Thema Kolonialismus in der Welt, in sich selbst, in ihrer Geschichte. Manche sind dafür erstmals in ihre Herkunftsländer gereist und haben Erzählungen mitgebracht, manche haben eigene Erinnerungen in Bewegung und Klang und Licht umgesetzt. Die Performer sind das Archiv, aus dem durch eine begehbare Installation, in Story-Boxen, Videos und Skulpturen ein Parcours entsteht. Der Zuschauer kann nach Belieben zusteigen und mitsegeln, Himmmelsrichtung Zukunft.

*AZIMUT –von arabisch  السموت , as-sumūt, die Wege – ist ein Terminus aus der Astronomie. Er  bezeichnet einen nach Himmelsrichtungen orientierten Horizontalwinkel und dient der Kursbestimmung. - Aber sehen wir dieselben Sterne?

Von und mit Ensemble Hajusom Hamed Ahmadi, Aboubacarine Badi Maiga, Inoussa Dabré, Angelina Akosua Darko, Yaa Julia Darko, Farzad Fadai, Elmira Ghafoori, Katalina Götz, Malihe Hashemi, Youssouf Madougou, Arman Marzak, Nebou N'Diaye, Ishika Popat, Dennis Robert Ebhodaghe, Fares Wadi Gastperformer: Mimpamba Thomas Combari 

Künstlerische Leitung und Regie: Ella Huck, Dorothea Reinicke Workshops und konzeptionelle Mitarbeit: Latai Taumoepeau (Tonga), Martin Ambara (Kamerun), AK Hamburg Postkolonial   Choreografie: Josep Caballero Garcia, Jochen Roller Komposition, musikalische Leitung: Viktor Marek Musik: Sergio Vasquez Carrillo, Carlos Andres Rico und Sedah Hajusom Video: Nina und Adnan Softić Mitwirkung Video: Raphael Hähni, Vera Charlotte Petermann Ausstattung: Michael Böhler, Markus Lohmann   Kostüm: Nadira Nasser Technische Leitung: Ricarda Schnoor Lichtdesign: Ricarda Schnoor, Marek Lamprecht Tondesign und Videorealisierung: Manuel Horstmann Produktionsleitung: Lea Connert Projektkoordination: Julia zur Lippe Presse und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit: Ania Faas  Regieassistenz: Valentina Wyss Produktionsassistenz: Stefanje Meyer Projektassistenz: Gabriela Vasileva Praktikantinnen: Mariam Goharpour, Greta Köhne Dank an: Lore Hofmann und Satenik Danielyan!

AZIMUT dekolonial – Ein Archiv performt ist eine Hajusom-Produktion in Koproduktion mit Kampnagel Hamburg, MARKK, Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster, FFT Düsseldorf und Sophiensaele Berlin

Gefördert durch: Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg Die Reise von Thomas Combari wird gefördert von Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst, Norddeutsche Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung sowie Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg/Internationaler Kulturaustausch

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Production Management | Josep Caballero García | Melancholía | Kampnagel Hamburg, Theater Lüneburg, HAU Berlin | 2019 

In his new group work MELANCHOLÍA, Josep Caballero Garcia questions the romantic relationship concept which has been passed down by Georg Friedrich Händel’s heroic opera »Giuglio Cesare in Egitto« since 1724 and uses the broad spectrum of human affect as a foundation for a piece about desirous bodies. The baroque opera heroes, who were driven by power and eroticism and once performed by castrati, are a vehicle for him and his team to think about the contradictory corporeal constructs of the West and to reconstruct them using their own bodies.

Concept, choreography, performance: Josep Caballero García

performance: Lea Martini, Sheena McGrandles, Enis Turan

music direction: Alexandra Holtsch

music, singing: Hubert Wild

music, speech song: Black Cracker

dramaturgy: Anne Kersting

stage design, costumes: Christin Vahl

light design: Marek Lamprecht

production management : Lea Connert

project manager: Barbara Greiner

intern: Anna Sophie von Mansberg

A production of Queerpraxis GbR/ Josep Caballero García with Kampnagel Hamburg and the Theater Lüneburg, in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer, supported by Fonds Doppelpass der Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg

https://www.kampnagel.de/de/programm/melancholia/

photo: Simone Scardovelli

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Head of Production | Symposium | MARKK | Hajusom 2019

https://www.hajusom.de/deutsch/aktuell/azimut-tag-des-offenen-vorhangs/

My parents were born in a colonised country Now I am in exile where the colonists came from Can a decolonial turn lead us …

Link zu den Fotos der Veranstaltung

Link zu dem Video der Veranstaltung

Foto: Arnold Morascher 

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A CROSS-ARTJOURNEY

Where do we turn if we want to work across artistic movements and disciplines? How do we find the yet-undiscovered communities that inhabit the cross-art interface? How do we liberate our artistic practice?

TRAVERS is a multidisciplinary project that aims to pose questions and search for answers. TRAVERS will provide the space to challenge habits, mind-sets and attitudes. It will seek out new processes and artistic languages, and cultivate the art of encounter. TRAVERS aims to create a strong society of artists, who will develop and expand the interdisciplinary field during exceptional opportunities for working across formats and territories.

TRAVERS facilitates a two-year journey into an unexplored cross-artistic landscape. During this journey, TRAVERS will host three collaborative camps in November 2018, May 2019 and June 2020. These residencies will offer an opportunity to found new, egalitarian workspaces, where artists can work and wonder together in a shared artistic laboratory. Beside the three big camps, TRAVERS will moderate smaller encounters, initiated by visiting artists or ensembles, who wish to contribute to the interdisciplinary programme.

The TRAVERS journey is open to all artists and scholars. The journey is free and offers various ways of joining.

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Head of Production, Dramaturg | Der Hamburger Kodex | Lichthof Theater Hamburg | 2018

DER HAMBURGER KODEX Eine theatrale Versammlung ab 10 Jahren

Ist der Tod gerecht? Ist jeder eine Petze? Ist es gut, jeden Tag Eis zu essen? Warum darf ich nicht die ganze Nacht fernsehen? Kann es für jedes Problem eine gerechte Lösung geben? Wenn es Dir niemand sagen würde, woher wüsstest Du dann, was man darf und was man nicht darf? In dem dokumentarischen Theaterprojekt DER HAMBURGER KODEX forschen auf der Bühne drei erwachsene Schauspieler*innen und drei Kinder ab 11 Jahren auf der Grundlage von philosophischen Gesprächen und Interviews über die großen und kleinen Zwickmühlen des Lebens. Die brennendsten Fragen spielen sie auf der Bühne nach. In einer theatralen interaktiven Versammlung werden die jungen Zuschauer*innen aufgefordert, in Schlüsselszenen Entscheidungen zu treffen, die das Bühnengeschehen mitbeeinflussen.

Im zweiten Teil der theatralen Versammlung wird gemeinsam mit dem Publikum abgestimmt: Gibt es Regeln für ein gutes, richtiges Leben? Daraus entsteht DER HAMBURGER KODEX.

Die Texte des Stückes sind erlebte und erfundene Geschichten, ethische und philosophische Dilemmata von Schüler*innen der Stadtteilschule Bahrenfeld, dem Gymnasium Dörpsweg und dem Gymnasium Lerchenfeld.

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“Post-Heimat”

The symposium “Post-Heimat” takes place on May 26, 3 pm in Kammer 3, free entry

Lecture | Münchner Kammerspiele | 2018

Together with RUHRORTER, the Kammerspiele are organising a three-day working meeting by and for artists, producers and academics to raise the issues of diversity, flight and migration on the cultural agenda in the long term and to exchange views on artistic approaches and structural developments. Representatives from the boat people projekt, Hajusom, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Collective Ma’louba, Pavillon Hannover will be there. In english language.

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Company Management | International Summer Program | Watermill Center | 2016-2018 

On Saturday, July 28, 2018, The Watermill Center hosted TIME BOMB: The 25th Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit & Auction, honoring the late Pierre Berge. Described as an enchanted forest and performance art extravaganza, the Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit unites the worlds of art, performance, music, theatre, design, architecture and fashion. All funds raised support The Center’s year-round Artist Residency and Education Programs that provide a unique environment for young and emerging artists to explore and develop new work.

This year, the Center’s eight-and-a-half acre grounds showcased nearly 30 site-specific works and performances curated in tribute to Berge’s exceptional life and work by artists including: Kira Alker & Elke Luyten, Laurie Anderson, Davide Balliano, Yto Barrada (courtesy the artist & Pace Gallery), Bäst, Oliver Beer, Tania Bruguera, Anne Carson, CocoRosie, Inga Galinyte, Miles Greenberg & Nile Harris, A.M. Homes, Jenny Holzer, Dawn Kasper (courtesy David Lewis Gallery), Amy Khoshbin, Christopher Knowles, Baboo Liao & Adrian Damian & Mariano Marquez, Lydia Lunch & Weasel Walter, Wangechi Mutu, NoodleRice, OSGEMEOS, Anna Papathanasiou, Cleon Peterson, Flavio Pezzotti, Reynold Reynolds & Patrick Jolley, Georgia Sagri, Annamaria & Marzio Sala (courtesy Kolumba, Köln), Stephen Shanabrook, Naomi Shihab Nye, Shoplifter a.k.a. Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir . Dimitrii Staev, Paul Thek, Tassy Thompson, Naama Tsabar with Kristin Müller, Basco Vazko, Carlos Vela-Prado, and Nari Ward (courtesy the artist & Lehmann Maupin, New York & Hong Kong). All performances, installations and video works are curated by Noah Khoshbin and Ivan Cheng.

Cinematography and Editing by Leonie Sakuth & Lovis Ostenrik Music by Mitya Staev

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Die Show der Nachwuchsgruppen von Hajusom

Im Rahmen des New-Hamburg-Festivals Solipolis macht die Show der Gruppe Cosmic Supermovies (jetzt M.Power) Visionen zur Stadt der Zukunft sichtbar. Mit ihrer Performance Solidarische Stadt haben sie kleine, selbst gedrehte Video-Clips mit Performances verbunden.

Hajusom Kids schicken mit ihrer Kurz-Performance Anarcho-Power ins Publikum. ATG, Hajusoms Hiphop-Gruppe, zeigt ebenfalls ihre Positionen zum Thema Solidarische Stadt - und zum Ausklang gibt Sedah Hajusom, Hajusoms „Stimme“, ein Konzert.

Entwickelt wurde die Show von den künstlerischen Leitern der Nachwuchsgruppe, die selbst Teil  des transnationalen Ensembles sind und „alte Hasen“ bei Hajusom.

Bonus: Die Zuschauer haben bei der offenen Probe die Gelegenheit, unsere beliebte Coupé-Decalé-Choreografie zu erlernen! Und natürlich darf die lange Tafel nicht fehlen, an der wir uns austauschen und das Essen unseres hauseigenen Caterer-Performers Arman Marzak genießen.

Cosmic Supermovies/M.Power Künstlerische Leitung: Hamed Ahmadi, Farzad Fadai, Elmira Ghafoori Video-Coaching: Adnan Softič Mit: Chris, Elahe, Elnaz, Haniye, Jamal, Jennifer, Mona, Numi, Nilofar, Omid, Reza, Roja

Hajusom Kids Künstlerische Leitung: Farzad Fadai, Katalina Götz Von und mit: Amela, Jonas, Leonie, Nadia, Rebecca, Rehana, Sahar, Tanja

ATG Künstlerische Leitung, Choreographie: Can Gülec Mit: F Fawad, Jamal, Lorenc, Mohammad, Mustafa, Ntando, Sahar, Zohre

Sedah Hajusom Musikalische Leitung: Carlos Andres Rico, Sergio Vasquez Carrillo Texte: Hamed Ahmadi Von und mit: Alireza, Amir-Hossein, Elahe, Fardin, Jennifer, Sameullah, Moheb, Mostafa, Mehran

Catering: Arman Marzak (mit Produkten aus dem Future Gardening Projekt)

Künstlerisches Team / Konzept Künstlerische Leitung Hajusom: Ella Huck, Dorothea Reinicke Produktion: Lea Connert Produktionsassistenz: Valentina Wyss

Dank an Sina Schröppel und das New Hamburg Team, Satenik Danielyan, Mariam Gohar Pour, Greta Köhne, Gartendeck St. Pauli e.V.

Gefördert von Reimund C. Reich Stiftung, Fonds Soziokultur, Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg, Uno-Flüchtlingshilfe, Homann-Stiftung, BürgerStiftung Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Mara & Holger Cassens Stiftung

LINKS: Fotos,  Video

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Mit dem sogenannten »Willkommenssommer« 2015 sind demografische Veränderungen in Deutschland noch einmal verstärkt in den Blick der Öffentlichkeit gerückt und damit auch ein neues Bewusstsein für die Dringlichkeit von gesellschaftlichen Aufnahme- und Öffnungsanstrengungen. Dem Feld der Kultur kommt hier besondere Bedeutung zu – als Ort kollektiver Identitätsstiftung und -findung, als verbrieftem Menschenrecht der kulturellen Teilhabe und als drittgrößtem Engagementbereich in Deutschland.

Doch gerade in Kultureinrichtungen wächst die Einsicht, dass in ihnen auch die Vielfalt der schon lange in Deutschland lebenden Menschen nicht annähernd repräsentiert wird. Die Fachtagung präsentiert Einschätzungen zum Ist-Zustand, fragt in Form von Vorträgen, Diskussionen, Workshops und Vernetzungsformaten nach Ansätzen, um die interkulturelle Öffnung von Einrichtungen der Kultur und des Kulturengagements voranzutreiben und bietet Raum zum Erfahrungsaustausch.

Die Fachtagung ist Teil der vom Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge geförderten „Arbeitsdialoge zu Öffnungsprozessen in etablierten Kultureinrichtungen“.

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#maketheatrevirtualagain

What is virtuellestheater?

virtuellestheater was founded in 2015 by seven artists living and working in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2017 it registered as an association for performing arts and arts promotion. As such it supports virtual art practices, also aiming to promote the work of other artists beyond the ranks of its members, striving for co-productions and the strengthening of non-mainstream networks.

virtuellestheater is thus not a group name, but the designation of a certain approach to (performative) art. Anyone who identifies with the ideas of virtual art practice can use this name. 

For now, virtuellestheater is two things. It is the association virtuellestheater e.V. and it is us  - producing art under the label of virtuellestheater.

For our artistic research, we always use non-linear narrative forms, digital media and new technology. The results are performance installations for a good life and a better future.

For us virtual art practice is a form of artistic subversive criticism of the present. It includes five aspects of art practice: VECTT

1. Virtuality: Virtual art is virtual. That doesn’t necessarily include utilizing means of the internet or cyberspace but rather working with those regions of reality that have yet to become actual. It is not fiction of the impossible but presentation and discussion of possible possibilities. 

2. Ethics: Virtual art is ethical. This includes fair, non-exploitative production conditions, strategies for inclusion and diversity, open source thinking and a non-capitalistic mind-set.

3. Content: Virtual content is non-linear, non-singular, complex and empowering to those who are underrepresented in society.

4. Topic: Virtual art has contemporary topics. It is reflecting on the now and the future. It presents ideas beyond mainstream and traditional power structures. 

5. Technology: Virtual art uses up to date technology. Technology is a manifestation of culture and thus to be included in art practice. It is to be used in a subversive manner that does not give in to the common consumer-provider logic of every day life.

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A Convention hosted by and with CALL Callzine a zine on art and feminism

PRE MORTEM - Anti Aging for artists (english)

From 23–25 June 2017, the feminist platform CALL together with the artist residency Künstlerhäuser Worpswede invite you to the convention “PRE MORTEM – Anti Aging for artists” on the compounds of the Martin Kausche studios.

In the former artist colony of the historical town Worpswede, the topics of aging and death will be discussed in the context of art and feminism through workshops, lectures, experiments, performances and film screenings.

“PRE MORTEM” refers to the time of our physical existence in this world. The inevitability of death and the confrontation with it, in particular with regard to the digitization of all spheres of life, is gaining in relevance, in the artistic debate, as well as in art historiography and its valuation systems. Fundamental technological changes give rise to hopes of dissolving entrenched societal structures and, last but not least, death itself. “PRE MORTEM” also refers to the fact that feminism, with its hitherto existing aims, seems to be on the verge of dying, either, be it by prominent and manifold absorption or by an anti-feminist backlash. But may it have died numerous times, feminism is also experiencing constant revivals: Thereʻs life in the old dog yet!

CALL considers this convention a contemporary format that softens the understanding of actor and audience, of activity and passivity, and allows for numerous smaller presentations, spontaneous performances and a variety of contributions. Workshops and symposia bring individual ideas into an exchange, with other academics and groups, each following their own projects. Life, health, (anti-) aging, death and cultural heritage – with forward-looking ideas, political utopias and physical care, we address these topics at the feminist convention “PRE MORTEM – Anti Aging for artists ”.

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Production Management |  Meine Damen und Herren | Kampnagel Hamburg | 2017

Jetzt bestimme Ich! 

Eine Performance nach dem Bilderbuch von Juli Zeh und Dunja Schnabel 

Familie Wiefel kann sich nicht entscheiden. Wer darf bestimmen, was gegessen wird und wohin der Samstagsausflug geht? Wer sagt eigentlich, dass immer die Eltern bestimmen dürfen? »JETZT BESTIMME ICH!« stellt das in Frage und alltägliche Hierarchien auf den Kopf. Das inklusive Ensemble Meine Damen und Herren bringt die gleichnamige Geschichte von Juli Zeh auf die Bühne – über neue Wege der Entscheidungsfindung und die Suche nach Gerechtigkeit. 

VON UND MIT // PERFORMANCE Tim Borstelmann, Melek Erenay, Jochen Klüßendorf, Tom Reinecke, Celina Scharff PARCOURS Katharina Bromka, Melanie Lux, Noa Michalski, Thomas Möller, Matthias Zalachowski, Förderkurs Theater (Stufe II, Jg. 5+6) Bugenhagenschule Alsterdorf, Klasse 4d der Ganztagsgrundschule Sternschanze AUFSICHTSRAT Josefine Großkinsky, Christoph Grothaus, Friederike Jaglitz, Caroline Messerschmidt, Michael Schumacher, Dennis Seidel, Lina Strothmann REGIE Charlotte Pfeifer, Martina Vermaaten MUSIK Pascal Fuhlbrügge BÜHNE Nadira Nasser KOSTÜME Katrin Rieber PRODUKTIONSLEITUNG Lea Connert ASSISTENZ Asha Athumani, Katharina Kindsvater, Stefanje Meyer, Kevin Tyler Schindler, Jan Sperling PRESSE Stückliesel FOTO Christian Martin 

Eine Produktion von Meine Damen und Herren in Ko-Produktion mit Kampnagel.

Gefördert von der Kulturbehörde der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg und vom Fonds Soziokultur.