claudia bosse / theatercombinatvampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?

austria premiere 8. december 2010

vienna, kartographisches institut

claudia bosse / theatercombinatvampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?

this latest production, “vampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?”, initiates in the wide range of the works by director claudia bosse a new era of spatial sound performance. theatercombinat creates a space of history for the present with textual fragments by seneca, marx up to baudrillard and others and poses the question: what is to be done?

the production was introduced on november 24th at FFT dusseldorf. for the austrian premier, the public was invited into the heart of vienna's traditional eighth district into the spectacular 700 m2 hall of the printing workshop of austria's former imperial institute for military geography.

theatercombinat with “vampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?” is invited to a residency at watermill center, new york, founded by robert wilson in january/february 2011 with a closing presentation on february 12, 2012.

www.theatercombinat.com

http://theatercombinat-vampire.blogspot.com

claudia bosse / theatercombinatvampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?

„vampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?“ is the starting point of a new series of theatre works by claudia bosse with a multilingual ensemble in collaboration with sound artist günther auer. the opening night was created for the black box of FFT juta in düsseldorf: within the soundscape surrounding the spectators, four performers relate their acting and their speech to audio documents and sounds, entering into a dialogue with the acoustic architecture together with the spectators.

a quest for the (historical) subject on confusing and explosive grounds. social experiments, aesthetic utopias, revolutionary gestures – unredeemed promises of history become a condensed space for the desire of freedom to resonate. bodies and texts appear, collide and provoke the articulation of our own thoughts and actions.

a fragmented present, fragmented history. extreme theatre as a space of the present for questions, incertitudes and orientations about identity, sexuality and political acting with 4 actors from 4 countries and generations.

a performance with sound documents from 1859 until today, choreography, auto-fictions and textual fragments following griselidis réal, richard wagner, karl marx, bram stoker, jean baudrillard and others. spatial compositions with biographies, bodies, texts, sound and music. a hommage to life and some remains of political convictions. what is to be done, then?

no piece “about”. a piece becoming a piece. a piece telling itself. a body tells a story,the story of its life and also its desires. one body towards another body tells anotherstory. relationships, relations. dependencies, comparisons, desires. wondering. thespace must be taken. grasped. the stage is the social space, wherein I take place.the body tells a story with one text, another one with another text. the body narratesabout narrating by means of a certain text, the text tells its story. the body can baffle,change, hide. those bodies and biographies are the narration. a narration of theconfrontation with narratives. they are shaken as if being tossed around by a storm.but they stay put on stage, endure the storms, they are observed, they observe. thestorms of history, of society, of being. the storms of survival, orientation, aberration.knowing and not-knowing alternate. known texts open ways to roads not taken, whereyou can get completely lost. but this is the piece. wanting to understand, not beingallowed to understand. being no further than where you are at this precise moment.

claudia bosse

vampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?

„chapters“

“vampires of the 2st century or what is to be done, then?” is structured by five complexes, compositorial entities out of texts, speech, sounds, choreographies and situations. the alignment of these complexes can vary evening for evening and thus creates respectively different narratives and compositions of the elements. the “complexes” are interrupted by more open parts, “interplays” - ruptures into reality perforating the now of the performance and the phantasies of its interpreters.

resurrectioncrisis of identity, memory. socialism and impossible justice. learning to live between political engagement and privacy. self-evocations. belief and existence

orgywe live in a space of simulation after the orgy. an ezcess of the market and of the bodies. collective bodies. sexuality. speaking. condensation and surplus value, a simulated excess.

lifea terrorist association starts with more than two people. we waste our life with acts of reproduction, which have changed over the millennia, as well as antagonisms and valuations of the selbst. but we finally have to start acting. how”?pragmatism – acts and images

blood and airwould you use violence against yourself or others? do you enjoy violence? for progress, prometheus and al the others who identify with him. sacrifice, resistance. sexual pleasure as work. love as sacrifice. the vampire lives on. the myth sucks on us, exhausts us. but he exists and lives but by us, by our imagination. revive the vampire to destroy him?romantics (of imaginations/myths)

civil warwar against the state and the morality of the rule of law. tranient extistences between the systems. a romantic terrorist transgression. robin hood and symbolic explosions. what persists is the violence towards the own flesh. the incorporation of the own children. a cannibalism of the moral system. rule of law and cannibalism – passages

claudia bosse

concepts and methods – a collection

compositional narrative

enables a different encounter of movements, biographies, sound documents, languages and textual fragments. the compositional narrative construes via rhythms, sound, moods and contents that interact with each other like a score of events. within the soundscape that encompasses the audience the four players relate their speeches and their acting to audio documents and sounds, entering into a dialogue with the acoustic architecture.

acoustic architecture

acoustic architecture the loudspeakers are identifiable spots, embodying the sound. an architecture of hearing. other spaces are introduced into this architecture, into this game of different possibilities: physical spaces by the performers and their dynamics, tunes, gestures. media spaces by the qualities and historical origins of the recordings. each time, the combination of the sources and their intensity and placing tells a different story.

interpreters

the interpreters are the agents of this encounter of different material. they are the guidance system of perception. they initiate the relations, the space, the situation, the attention, etc. they are manipulating agents of themselves, at the same time initially creating themselves via their speaking, their moving, their sound space, their tension. autofictional self-disclosures are rhythmical games of suspense with themselves and with the others. not confessions, but games, where the conditions and possibilities of the self have to be identified and grasped.

interplays wander from the defined compositional narrativs with rhythms, energies and situations to a process of research in the moment towards the self and the others.

they need the autonomy of the individual to the other, enabling the encounter. productive loneliness. experimenting, also following questions like “what can thatre be today?” - or more precisely: “what can i be in theatre today?”

auto-fictions how can i offer structures which clarify the sequences and responsibilities of information. what is the economy of the stereotypes and issues introduced by me as interpreter, and how do i guide them, use them further, turn them around etc? and i am their source, but i don't have to be their victim or present myself as “case”. i am an example anyhow, just by moving in this society.

perpetrator, victim. impetus, change. how can i depict myself as actor, not as „issue“. where do intention and moral block the emergence of utterances? how does information interact? breaking the promises of their propositions...

digital fading

while listening to ancient audio recordings. Noise. Like yellowing of the music. Yellow music. Yellow sound. Permanently progressing diapperance. The magnets loosen, blur. The process of disappearance is hearable. A slow death, discharging into noise. The death of the ancient sound is not the nothingness. The death of the ancient sound is the all-embracing noise.

This death is dead. No longer a slow fade-out after so and so many replays.

Only the switch ON or OFF. It sounds as it as has been recorded, until the moment of no-more-sounding, the moment of destruction. No long good-bye. No decay. ON – OFF. Nothing reminds of an origin.

The process of dying exchanged. By a track of clones. Nothing distinguihes the clone from the original. The original? Only its timestamp. Its date of origin: open to manipulation. Is it the same original, when I manipulate its date every single day?

Digitalising ancient, noisy recordings. Freezing the process of dying for a long time. Seemingly reaching into eternity.

Until the power stops. Until there is no more energy left for the switch. Or the production of their devices. Again: this happens subtly. The clones diminish. Disappear. BUT: stepwise. Not floating.

The symbol of the digital area: the stepsas opposed to the ramp when the world was still rolling.

günther auer

vampires of the 21st century or what is to be done, then?

by/withcaroline decker (d/at)frédéric leidgens (b/fr)yoshie maruoka (jp/at)nora steinig (ch)

concept/direction/space claudia bossesound günther auerconsultation/communication christine standfestproduction management annelie fritzetechnical director/constructions marco tšlzerassistant director thomas köckproduction assistant anna feldbeinresearch sound archive ana mirkovicconsultation alexander schellowlighting consultation alexander wankopress SKYunlimited

a production by theatercombinat in coproduction with FFT dusseldorf

dates

opening nightnovember 24, 2010, FFT dusseldorfpresentations november 26/27, 201020.00, performance in german languagewww.forum-freies-theater.de

austria premieredecember 8, 2010, kartographisches institutpresentations december 9/10/11and 14/15/16, 2010 ,20.00performance in german languageresidency january 25 - february 13, 2011watermill center - a laboratory for performance,long island/new yorkpresentation february 12, 2011english/french versionviennakartographisches institutkrotenthallergasse 3, a - 1080 viennasupported by wien kultur, bezirkskultur josefstadt,erste bankwww.theatercombinat.com

processin march 2010 claudia bosse together with guenther auer (sound) created a first sketch of this new series with students at manufacture HETSR lausanne entitled “je veut un mot vide que je puisse remplir”.

in may 2010 she started rehearsing in vienna in a first frame with frédréric leidgens (f) and nora steinig (ch).

contemporary theatre based on fragmented texts and auto-fiction playing withsound/speech documents from 100 years of media history. a history of language, of politicalreality. a history of life, recorded as sounds, reports, speeches, music.

a text corpus of about 20 fragments by ovid to walter benjamin or the (austrian) ¤278(terrorist association of the criminal code), a sound archive of up to 300 documents.

with actress nora steinig (25 ch), a former trapeze artist, famous paris based actor frédéricleidgens (59 b/fr), who already worked with claudia bosse as "phèdre" in geneva and vienna,yoshie maruoka (48 j/at), vienna based japanese actress and performer, who alreadyparticipated in "2481 desasterzone", dancer caroline decker (33 ger/at), together with austriannational award for multimedia winner, sound artist guenther auer.

4 generations, 4 countries. english/french as common denominators of the different languages.identity, violence, political visions. an utopian space of questions, actions, confrontations anduncertainties.

a new team, new media, a new terrain. new questions, new techniques.

artistic director claudia bosse and theatercombinatfounded in 1996 in berlin and based in vienna since 1999 are famous for their spectacular andhighly diverse approaches to performance and theatre, using the whole range of its elements -language, body, gestures, space -, combining them in as yet unknown ways and pushing thembeyond their limits - in search of new, collective, adventurous ways to communicate with thepublic. performances, installations and theatre works take place in various countries in europefrom montenegro to germany, at riverbanks, former industrial or actual construction sites orsports areas, in urban space, in specially adapted buildings and in theatre spaces.

at the same time, theatercombinat represents a highly experienced production company forindependent art and theatre works to enable elaborate and expansive experimental formats. itis also a qualified partner for coproductions with institutions or festivals such as kampnagelhamburg, tanzquartier vienna, staatstheater braunschweig, theater der welt or theaterformen,germany, i.e. claudia bosse's staging of "the persians" by aeschylus with a tragic chorus of 400citizens of braunschweig on the stage of the national theatre, or award winning urbancomposition "bambiland" with text by the nobel prize winner elfriede jelinek about the thirdgulf war all over vienna.

after this latest four year series "producers of tragedy", treating specific models of theatrefrom aeschylus, shakespeare, racine to jelinek, claudia bosse and theatercombinat initiated anew series of works: proliferating media hybrids, landscapes of sounds, documentary spaces. afragmented present, a fragmented history. theatre as playing field and toolbox of the present!

biographiesclaudia bosse (D/A)born in 1969 in germany. stage direction, theory, installation. 1996 diploma in stagedirection at Çhochschule fur schauspielkunst ernst buschÈ, berlin. theatre,choreography, theatrical installations, interventions in public space in berlin, geneva,vienna, hamburg, dusseldorf, podgorica, etc.1996 founding of theatercombinat in berlin. collaboration with josef szeiler.since 1999 theatercombinat vienna. artistic direction theatercombinat. variouspublications, lectures and teaching. from 2006 to 2008 metteuse en scﾏne associŽe atGR†/thŽ‰tre du grutli, geneva. from 2006 to 2009 claudia bosse developed thetheatrical series „producing tragedyÈ in vienna, geneva, dusseldorf and braunschweigwith christine standfest, gerald singer et al. since 2010 research tohybrids/autofictions.productions/choreographies/installations/projects (selection)2010 VAMPIRES OF THE 21rst CENTURY or WHAT IS TO BE DONE THEN?, fftdusseldorf, theatercombinat vienna JE VEUT UN MOT VIDE QUE JE PUISSE REMPLIR,manufacture HETSR Lausanne 2009 BAMBILAND, concertante indoor choreography,wien modern, festival for contemporary music, vienna; 2481 DESASTER ZONE,multihybrid tragedy, former ankerbrotfabrik, vienna; BAMBILAND’S DAY, urbaninstallation, with FFT dusseldorf; shooting and preview of REHE UND RAKETEN (roesand rockets), movie based on the novel ÇbambiÈ by felix salten (premiere 2010);PHéDRE REVIEW at schauspielhaus vienna; CORIOLAN REVIEW, new staging; PERSERREVIEW, audio-visual installation with performances (both former ankerbrotfabrik,vienna); FALSE MEMORY with vŽronique alain, liesl raff, at academy of fine arts,vienna, produced by tanzquartier vienna. 2008 BAMBILAND08, urban composition inpublic space at 7 sites in vienna; THE PERSIANS festival theaterformen, with 340citizens, national theatre braunschweig, accompanied by the discourse series P-BAR;PHéDRE at maison de faubourg, GR†/thŽ‰tre du grutli, geneva. 2007 TURN TERRORINTO SPORT, mass choreography with 100 participants at maria-theresien-platz,coproduced by tanzquartier vienna; CORIOLANUS at remise breitensee, vienna 2006LES PERSES at GR†/ thŽ‰tre du grutli, geneva, with 180 citizens of geneva; THEPERSIANS in a subterranean tunnel, vienna; YAMOYAMO with robert woelffl,steirischer herbst, graz. 2005 PALAIS DONAUSTADT, 10 500 sqm installation atdonaucity, vienna, a temporary art space with BALLET PALAIS, FIRMARAUMFORSCHUNG (space research inc.), FILM IM PALAIS, ARCHIV IM PALAIS; OôEST DONC LE TABLEAU 76 showings for 3 visitors, texts by michel foucault and heinermuller (Çdescription of a pictureÈ). 2004: BELAGERUNG BARTLEBY (siege bartleby), a100-hours theatrical installation with lectures and performances at HAU I, berlin;2004 MAUSER by heiner muller, podgorica, national theater montenegro andkampnagel, hamburg, funded by kulturstiftung des bundes, coproductiontheatercombinat and kampnagel, hamburg).publications (with others): Çbelagerung bartlebyÈ, Çskizzen des verschwindensÈ(scetches of disapperarence), revolver publishing, frankfurt/main; awardsBAMBILAND08 ÇnestroyÈ, international theatre price of the city of vienna, for best offproduction2009.

guenther auer (A),born in 1964, lives and works in vienna. as gtt he realizes two-and three-dimensionalart works using various media. auer studied at the university of music and performingarts vienna. since 1995 he conceptualizes installations with images, sound andobjects. from 1995 to 1999 lecturer at university of music and performing arts vienna(music & computer).in 1999 auer worked as musical director for stimmen gottes in marrakech, a projectby andrŽ heller and ORF. between 1999-2000 he realized the permanent projectsonosphere in the house of music vienna (conception and artistic realisation), forwhich he received the austrian museum prize in 2002. further works: 2001 id atdornerplatz in vienna, a permanent project with 14 blue boards in public space. 2003

doppler at red bull hangar 7, a permanent installation with images, objects andsound; blue space in baden-baden; a permanent installation with images, movingblanket, and objects; 2004 sleep a solo exhibition with photos, videos, objects andsound at nikolaj contemporary art centre copenhagen; 2006 die zauberflšte apermanent installation with photos, videos and sound at the mozart house (with virgilwidrich), for which he received the austrian national award for multimedia; 2006three more experiments at kunsthalle silkeborg bad, installation with photos, videos,sound, objects; 2006 nachtblau - photos and video for a rock concert; 2007 wasser -a curse and a blessing - space installation and multi-channel music for an exhibition ingmund.

caroline decker, (D/A)born in berlin, lives and works as freelance artist mainly in vienna. she studied danceand choreography in dresden (paluccaschule), graduated 2003 in salzburg (sead)further education at tisch - school of the arts, new york university. 2007 she wasgranted a scholarship by the bmukk austria. caroline has been performing for differentchoreographers such as willi dorner (a), ori flomin (usa), janez jansa (slo), rotraudkern (a), clint lutes (usa/d), katja richter (d), ayako shimizu (j). since 2005 she is alsoworking on her own projects, that where shown at a.o. tanzquartier wien, szenesalzburg and reithalle munchen. since 2001 she is teaching dance and improvisationas well as yoga (since 2007).

thomas kšck (A)born and raised in wolfern, upper austria in 1986. he was socialized mainly by andthrough music, played in different bands and musical projects since 2000, until he leftfor vienna in 2007 after short halts in innsbruck and london. here he studiesphilosophy and comparative literature. participation in staged readings and concerts.

frŽdŽric leidgens (B/FR)born in 1951. he studied at the university of heidelberg and the ecole supŽrieure d'artdramatique in strasbourg. leidgens works with different directors including andrŽengel, alain franﾍon, bernard sobel, michel deutsch, yvan dobtchev and margaritamladenova, arnaud meunier, jacques falguieres, phillippe chemin, bruno meyssat, justas with choreographers like wanda golonka, charles creange, franﾍois verret, sumakokoseki, mark tomkins. with daniel emilfork he wrote and interpreted among othersarchaeology (1980, 83, 92), he staged a number of non-theatrical texts, including:lenz (1999) and villon franﾍois (2000). since 2002 he collaborates regularly withstanislas nordey at the thŽ‰tre national de bretagne. in rennes he took part inatteintes ˆ sa vie by martin crimp in 2002, le triomphe de l'amour by marivaux in2005 and incendies de wajdi mouawad in 2007. leidgens cooperated with claudiabosse as ÇphﾏdreÈ in 2008/2009.

yoshie maruoka - maru (J/A)born in 1961 in tokyo. performer, actress, writer. theatrical education at the academyfor acting butai-geijutsu-gakuin in t™ky™. for the next 12 years she is am member oft™ky™ engeki ensemble, which is famous for contemporary stagings of bertolt brecht.since 1994 she lives and works in vienna. she participated in numerous theatre andfilm projects in austria and germany (i.e. nominee for best short movie, cannes2002), preferring experimental formats and collaboration with performers, composersand musicians, among others with kollegium kalksburg (cd a hšd is a schiggsoi) orcomposer pia palme (e-may-festival, konzerthaus vienna, 2009). her short storyangekommen was published in 2009. at times, artistic collaboration withchoreographer doris uhlich. with theatercombinat and claudia bosse she alreadyperformed in 2009 in roes and rockets, experimental documentary movie followingfelix salten's novel bambi, 2481 desasterzone and bambiland09.christine standfest (D/A)born in 1963 in germany. after and during studies of literature, gender and cultural

studies and pedagogics in berlin and lancashire turning from political activism totheatre, performance and theory. since 1997 she works mainly with theatercombinatand director claudia bosse in vienna, berlin, geneva, podgorica and other cities, i.e. infatzer by bertolt brecht, massakermykene, sieben, anatomy sade/wittgenstein, madccpsukb, sleep against dusseldorf, mauser by heiner muller, firma raumforschung, oﾝest donc le tableau, palais donaustadt; from 2006-2009 research and performance intheatercombinat's theatrical series producers of tragedy with various stagings andconcepts directed by claudia bosse of the texts the persians by aischylos in vienna,geneva and brunswick, coriolanus/turn terror into sport by shakespeare (vienna) andbambiland by elfriede jelinek (vienna/dusseldorf), ending the series with desasterzonein vienna, october 2009. besides, dramaturgy, teaching and writing activities, i.e. withbarbara kraus (fuck all that shit, ImPulsTanz 2005), or peter stamer (sans papiers,international dance congress, berlin), and for the internet platform corpusweb. latestproject: workshop direction at festival play!LEIPZIG, june 2010, všlker. schlachten.sprechen at monument to the battle of the nations, leipzig. clubbing - dance o'thetimes, coaching project, impulstanz 2010.

nora steinig (CH)born 1986, raised in geneva, where she suited courses for theater and circus. at theage of fourteen, she left switzerland to enter the ecole nationale de cirque dech‰tellerault in france, where she was admitted in 2001. she then turns to theater andjoins the cours florent in paris in 2005. two years later nora steinig was admitted tohaute ecole de thŽ‰tre de suisse romande and returned to live in switzerland. duringthese three years of formation, she won the prizes for drama studies of migros culturepercentage in 2008 and 2009, and the prize for drama studies of the foundation friedlwald in 2009. march 2010 participation in claudia bosse's atelier je veut un mot queje puisse remplir. finishing her studies in june 2010, she will attend the forthcomingcreation of mathieu bertholet, l'avenir seulement, at the theatre of gennevilliers inparis in february 2011.

EIN GESPENST GEHT UM IN EUROPA aber was geht zwischen den generationen vor?