Part of the Festival Utopian Realities – 100 Years of Now with Alexandra Kollontai

Performance

Concept / Performance: Simone Aughterlony & Jen Rosenblit

19, 20, 21, 22 January 2017, 20 h, 60-90 min.

Tickets: 10 / 15 Euro
to be purchased in advance through the website of HAU Hebbel am Ufer or at the door

Inspired by the soviet revolutionary and feminist Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Aughterlony and Rosenblit navigate current forms of feminist politics ­beyond manifestos. Unpacking the phenomenology of utopias solicits the fear that all things will not fit in the imagined path. A free-standing wall sits in the middle of the room offering possibilities to adjust, fix and reattach materials. Crushed nutmeg and pine needles entice the senses. Rhythmic sorcery drives the effort to organize the ingredients, despite their un-governability. Is this a cooking show or a construction site? The room offers an expanded horizon, encouraging disruptive practices by way of leaks and cracks inside architectures for gathering.

Everything Fits In The Room is part of the festival Utopian Realities – 100 Years of Now with Alexandra Kollontai which inquires into the topicality of political and artistic developments that became possible for a few years following the 1917 Russian Revolutions. What is the significance of the utopias of that time, and don’t many of these past ideas still appear future to us today? The work, the writings, and the life of Alexandra Kollontai are a productive inspiration here to measure the distance to the past in order to understand current society in its political form and to update its own positionings. She turned the body, love and sexuality into a political topic, developing new models of family and educational policy.

Composition / soundbody: Miguel Gutierrez, Colin Self; Guest performance: Sheena McGrandles; Light installation: Florian Bach; Music kitchen sculpture: Nik Emch; Dramaturgical advice: Jorge León, Joshua Lubin-Levy, Anna Mülter, Saša Bozic; Technical direction: Marie Prédour; Production assistance: Dagmar Bock; Production management: Sina Kießling; Administration: Karin Erdmann; Diffusion: Alexandra Wellensiek; Early sound research: Tami T.

A commission and co-production by HAU Hebbel am Ufer; Production: Verein für allgemeines Wohl; Co-production: Gessnerallee Zürich, Arsenic – Lausanne; Supported by: City of Zurich, Canton of Zurich Fachstelle Kultur und Pro Helvetia – Swiss Cultural Foundation, Tanzhaus Zurich, ImpulsTanz Wien, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fête de la Danse – Geneva; Created in the frame of Utopian Realities, a co-production of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of 100 Years of Now, curated by HAU Hebbel am Ufer; Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

With the kind support of District Berlin.