Ästhetik der Krise – eine Werkschau

Whether as a staccato-like re-enactment of weather reports and government declarations, as a space-consuming, physical flood of images, as a poetic doomsday fantasy or as a polyphonic, angry swan song – the "Aesthetics of the Crisis" exhibition showed aesthetic approaches to the climate catastrophe in staged readings, performative interventions, cross-disciplinary projects, audio installations and exhibitions. On the one hand, the exhibition addressed the challenge of artistically grasping the supposedly "unrepresentable" and, on the other hand, opened up questions of responsibility and concrete action.

Included as own contributions:

And all animals cry: this title won't save the world anymore (monkey gone to heaven) – a requiemmanifesto of extinction

by Thomas Köck

After the climate trilogy ("paradies fluten, paradies hungern, paradies spielen"), with which the author Thomas Köck wanted to encourage activism and give hope, his text "und alle tiere rufen:..." is a prophecy of species extinction. The intention here is no longer to encourage reflection, no longer to seek explanations, no longer to make recommendations. In his own rhythmic and musical language, Köck lets all the animal species, most of which have already been destroyed by Europeans in the course of their expansions, pass by the audience in a stream of memory. An echo from the future that seems irrevocable.

With: Paul Langemann, Klaus Müller, Pascal Riedel
Scenic design: Nicole Schneiderbauer
Assistant director: Marlies Grasse

DANCE OF FUTURE PAST

interior landscapes of dystopia – exterior landscapes of dystopia

Dance is political. The proof is provided by this two-part, expanding performance in which dancers from Augsburg Ballet choreographically address the effects of climate change and environmental destruction. In the part of the choreography that takes place on the rehearsal stage in martini Park, the inner view of the process is illuminated and a fluid creature is created that gives rise to dystopian images and incorporates them again. An eternal cycle of creation and destruction. The dance intervention on the mediation meadow focuses on the interaction of humans with nature, our environment. How does the human body change when the earth's surface, living conditions and landscapes become increasingly inhospitable and toxic for us? This question and many others are playfully explored with performative and dance elements.

Developed in collaboration with the dancers:
Brandi Paulina Baker, Ana Isabel Casquilho, Franco Ciculi, Martina di Giulio, Terra Hunter Kell, Giovanni Napoli, Afonso Pereira, Martina Piacentino, Cosmo Sancilio, Jayson Syrette, Yeonjae Jeong
Concept: Pia Girard, Gonçalo Martins da Silva, Adrià Vilar Algueró, Emily Wohl Curation: Nicole Schneiderbauer

Animals Act!

A play development by Club Z

"Problems as high as a block of ice and no solutions!" From the rapping polar bears at the North Pole to the dancing kangaroos in Australia, all the animals of the world are fed up with human inaction. The solutions are obvious, but they can't do anything on their own. That's why the animals set out on the journey of a lifetime.

For everbody 6 years and up

Starring: Luisa Sailer, Kani Bamerny, Pauline Fend, Charlotte Wahl, Luise Wahl, Antonia Rudolph, Lilly Sailer, Jakob Dänner, Aurel Huber, Moritz Weinold (Theatre and Music Club Z of the Augsburg State Theatre)
Production: Anna-Sophia Kraus
Play development: members of the Club Z, Alina Wenisch, Anna-Sophia Kraus
Event technology: Philipp Dahlke, Wolfram Obermeyer

Excerpt from "Garland“

by Svenja Viola Bungarten

We are in the not too distant future, somewhere in the middle east of America, or Europe, or the Sahara. In any case, the (environmental) catastrophe is omnipresent: the earth is parched, the sun is burning from the sky, there is no fresh breeze to cool it down. In this scenario of a rural comedy, a climate tragedy, a Wizard of Oz farce, the various, bizarre characters of the play try against all odds to find their happiness and not lose their sense of humour. After all, that's what it's all about: giving up is not an option, even if the problems are overwhelming.

With: Natalie Hünig, Thomas Prazak, Kai Windhövel, Gerald Fiedler, Patrick Rupar Scenic design: Nicole Schneiderbauer
Assistant director: Marlies Grasse

Choir of Scientists

Short intervention from "Fridays before the Future“
by Matthias Naumann (Futur II subjunctive)

The commissioned work "Freitags vor der Zukunft" by the theatre collaborative Futur II Konjunktiv deals with the urgency of immediate climate policy action. Climate change threatens all of our lives and yet in many cases it does not affect our consciousness and behaviour. We do not act as we should in view of the rapid destruction of the environment. What is holding us back? How do we put the will to maintain our prosperity, the technical level and our everyday life in relation to the fact that the current exploitation and destruction of nature cannot continue if we want to survive as humanity?

With Elif Esmen, Gerald Fiedler, Florian Gerteis, Christina Jung, Patrick Rupar
Director: Johannes Wenzel

Included as guest performances:

The Young Theatre Augsburg presents:

Lilu celebrates her birthday – and plastic celebrates with her

Lilu is happy because her birthday party is as wonderful as always: colourful, fun, with lots of guests and presents! But afterwards, Lilu's party mood is ruined: a huge mountain piles up in front of her – made of her own plastic waste! She is shocked and asks herself: Where does all the plastic actually go when we no longer need it? She sets off in search of clues, ends up in a mysterious underwater world and encounters strange creatures there... Age-appropriate, with lots of humour, specially composed live music, animated plastic creatures and lots of imagination, we invite the children to get involved in a serious and forward-looking topic: climate and environmental protection.

For all from 7 years

Director: Gianna Formicone
Play: Marina Lötschert
Live music: Lilijan Waworka
Workshop concept: Julia Magg
Artistic direction: Susanne Reng

ANTHROPOS, TYRANT (OEDIPUS)

by Alexander Eisenach

The tragedy of Anthropos is the tragedy of the man, who fancied himself the unchallenged ruler of the planet and constantly extended his tyranny until he was able to exploit every area of terrestrial life as a resource. Now, as we face a global catastrophe, the fingers of the seers are pointing at us. We ourselves are the culprits of pandemics and climate plagues.

The staged reading emerges from a production at the Volksbühne Berlin. Together with the climate researcher Antje Boetius, who appeared in the production as the priestess of the Oracle of Delphi, the ensemble descended into the depths of myth and earth history to research the tectonic fault lines of the relationship between human and non-human actors. This work continues and evolves. The lecture will take place in ever new constellations and transformations.

With: Johanna Bantzer, Sarah Franke, Vanessa Loibl and Emma Rönnebeck
Live music: Sven Michelson
Director: Alexander Eisenach

Ms H🔥lle

Lynn Takeo Musiol comes from a working-class family in the chemical city of Leverkusen.

"If you try hard enough, you can do anything", their parents had said. Now they are part of a privileged urban middle class. Their preoccupation with climate change challenges not only their understanding of prosperity and progress, but also their internalised narrative of social advancement. They suspects that the more successful the advancement, the greater the contribution to the destruction of the world.

Lynn Takeo Musiol shows an excerpt from the work "Frau H🔥lle" by the performance collective les dramaturx, which was shown in autumn 22 at the ReEDOcate ME! Festival at the Floating University Berlin.

les dramaturx is a performance collective by playwrights Lynn Takeo Musiol and Christian Tschirner. They are as concerned with questions of world preservation as they are with the prose of circumstances. They borrowed their motto "Together we are meaner" from the magazine EmanzenExpress from 1986. Their first work Bitter Fields will premiere at the OSTEN festival in July 2022. Current Mood: 👨🏽🌾 By and with: Lynn Takeo Musiol

fleeting ice

TOMORROW NEWS.

The retreat of glaciers is one of the most visible signs of the climate crisis. The acceleration at which the melting is occurring shocks all who look and calls for action.

"fleeting ice, news of tomorrow" is a contemporary revue, an atmospheric, musical event. Based on an ice core drilling on Colle Gnifetti 4450 m above sea level in the Monte Rosa area, it tells of transience and of a future with a future. Those who experience the evening will encounter mythological figures, ravishing pop songs, moments of pure science, stubborn optimism, will call up a QR code and experience connectedness and isolation. Sing, celebrate, mourn and walk out knowing that we can – still – determine our common future.

http://www.fluechtigeseis.ch/

Play: Marie Gesien, Regula Imboden and Stoffl Rath
Live sound: Knut Jensen
Direction & concept: Sabine Harbeke
Stage: Laura Knüsel
Costume: Jimena Cugat
Lighting: Ursula Degen
Scientific assistance: Prof. Dr. Margit Schwikowski

"How Plastic Changed My Life – Story of a Ranger".

Performance

The pandemic shutdown re-sorted the life of Augsburg-born Daniel Breitfelder. While the theatres remained closed, the artist and actor began to clean the twelve-kilometre stretch of Bonn's Rhine bank every day. A climate activist art figure was created: the RHEIN RANGER. As this figure, Breitfelder campaigns to spread awareness that it is possible for people to actively stop climate change through their consumption decisions. It inevitably entailed a radical change in his life: vegan, packaging- and leather/animal-free.

"What it takes is a revolution, we can't wait forever for politics." Each individual can make a difference. In addition to the high regional attention, media contributions have already been made on WDR and ZDF. In summer 2021, the RHEIN RANGER gave a TedTalk at TEDXBonn. Like a ranger in Canada's national parks, for example, he sees himself as a guardian and animator for the protection of our world, in which we want to exist together, in solidarity, in peace with each other and all living beings. His actions are driven by the urgency and radical necessity to act: NOW.

Concept & Idea: Daniel Breitfelder
Artistic direction: Julie Grothgar

Opera and her Double

an operative installation based on texts and music based on OPERA, OPERA, OPERA by Thomas Köck and Ole Hübner

The initial situation in the premiere of "opera, opera, opera! revenants&revolutions", originally planned as a grand opera, could hardly be more topical: Far in the future and after an extensive catastrophe, a choir with partial amnesia finds itself talking to itself and a cyborg about where they came from and where they are going. Fragments, hauntings, individual as well as collective memories of real and longed-for events rise from his cloudy memory. Suddenly they both find themselves in the desolate cultural landscape of an abandoned and decaying opera stage.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world premiere at the 2020 Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre could not take place as planned. The directorial team reconstructed an immersive video installation from the legacies and fragments of this ghost opera, which was shown in Munich in March 2022: as a journey into a present in which the future supposedly only seems conceivable as a catastrophe. In Augsburg, the installation can now be experienced as a digital walk-through simulation in a game engine.

Composition and libretto commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale. Co-production of the Munich Biennale with the Halle Opera. MDR KLASSIK production of excerpts from the opera, September 2020 in Halle. Direction and animation: Michael v. zur Mühlen

Space and set: Martin Miotk
Camera and editing: Stefan Bischoff