Ruhm und Erschöpfung
Durational Performance
by copy & waste
 
from 16.07.2016 – 22h until 17.07.2016 – 10h

"What happens when all the secrets of a city have been betrayed, and all its spaces uncovered? Is this then the end?"

A music hall from the 1900s that is – even now – a complete secret buried in the heart of our city. Heavily damaged during the war, and then forgotten. The place is neither in use nor publicly accessible. One of those hidden spaces – they do still exist. With its golden ornamentation, its high ceilings and faded carpets, the space would be the ideal new spot for –. Whatever.

The curatorial initiative Neue Berliner Räume is taking a departure from its own principle. It will neither open the music hall nor betray its secret. Culture leaves a path of destruction in its wake whenever it plays into the hands of city marketing. The search for the undiscovered is a paradox. It swallows precisely the thing that it seeks. And so, we leave this space untouched.

But we're sharing it nonetheless. To bring it to another place, where we can open it together. For one night.

The co-production from the theatre collective copy & waste and Neue Berliner Räume is open to the public for twelve hours on July 16th only. The entry is free.

copy & waste is a Berlin-based theatre collective founded by writer Jörg Albrecht and director and actor Steffen Klewar. The team is made up of actors, video artists, musicians, sound designers, set designers and specialists from other disciplines. Aside from working inside the black box, copy & waste have developed site-specific interventions, radio-play video installations, walks, and interactive, multi-medial spaces. Among others, they have worked in collaboration with: Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, English Theatre Berlin | IPAC, Ballhaus Ost, Theater Rampe Stuttgart, uniT Graz, steirischer herbst, Theater Oberhausen, Maxim Gorki Theater and Schauspiel Leipzig. Ruhm und Erschöpfung is a footnote and epilogue to PUBLIC SHOWDOWN, a trilogy which from 2014 up until now has focussed on the transformation of public spaces in Berlin.

Since 2011, Neue Berliner Räume has organised projects in unique and often historically significant sites in the city with partners such as the Humboldt University or C/O Berlin. Neue Berliner Räume has worked in such sites as the Veterinary Anatomical Theatre, Tempelhofer Freiheit, the former imperial Postfuhramt and most recently in Kunsthaus Dahlem, the former National Socialist state studio of Arno Breker.