it aint over till its over

My newest production with bigNOTWENDIGKEIT premiered in late May in Berlin.

This turned out to be an approximate 90 minutes performance, in which Esther Becker creates a chain of associations that pulsate around the theme of how and why things come to an end. Danijela Milijic is creating an excistence of her own by monotonic and ceaseless counting.

Since this was not a theatrical set up as such anymore, the request for light and sound was somewhat bit different also. Me and sound designer Alice Ferl were asked to produce a different level of being with our media. The space was turned into an experimental laboratory where we try out and execute our own compositions and adaptations of possible "ends".

I used quite a lot of very subtle chasers and painstakingly slow fades to interact and contrapunkt with the soundscapes Alice created. As result we have a space which has a life of it's own and is swaying, pulsating and flickering in a barely noticeable way. Everything is also run manually, so no two shows are quite the same and there is always room for improvisation and possibility to interact with Esther. 

All this is obviously quite impossible to see in a 2D photographs, but I will try to post a video as soon as the editing is finished to sample the idea better.

Description in German by bigNOTWENDIGKEIT:

"Das Ende ist präsent. Szenarien vom Ende begleiten uns täglich. Unermüdlich werden Enden proklamiert. Es ist das Ende der Geschichte, das Ende des Klassenkampfes, das Ende der Philosophie, das Ende des Christentums und der Moral, das Ende des Subjekts, das Ende des Menschen, das Ende des Abendlandes, das Ende des Ödipus, das Ende der Welt, Apocalypse now...

...Die Apokalypse gehört zu unserem Handgepäck. Sie ist ein Aphrodisiakum. Und sie ist ein Angsttraum. Sie ist eine Ware wie jede andere. Sie tritt uns in allen möglichen Gestalten und Verkleidungen entgegen, als warnender Zeigefinger und als wissenschaftliche Prognose, als Weckruf und als Produkt der Unterhaltungsindustrie, als Aberglauben, als Vexierbild, als Kick. Sie ist allgegenwärtig aber nicht wirklich: eine unaufhörliche Produktion unserer Fantasie, eine Katastrophe im Kopf. bigNOTWENDIGKEIT fassen das Ende näher ins Auge....

 

...Was ist das Faszinierende am Ende? Warum wird es bemüht? Was macht Enden zu Enden? Und was endet je wirklich? Ist die letzte Schwalbe das Ende des Sommers? Ist die erste Lüge das Ende der Liebe? Ist das Ende eines Romans der letzte Satz? Ist das Ende eines Films die letzte Szene oder der Moment, wenn der Abspann vorbei ist und das Licht im Kinosaal wieder angeht? Ideen von, Erinnerungen an und die Angst vor Enden werden befragt und ertragen. bigNOTWENDIGKEIT untersuchen ausgesuchte Enden aus Literatur, Film, Historie und Kunst auf ihre verschiedenen Qualitäten. Was lehren sie über Aufhören, Weitermachen und Neu-Anfangen?....

 

...Enden können Angst machen und sie können erleichtern. Sie können etwas wegnehmen, aber auch den Weg für etwas Neues öffnen. Erst vom Ende her können wir Dinge deuten und bewerten. Erst das Ende schafft Struktur und ermöglicht Anschauung. Soviel steht fest: ob angekündigt oder überraschend, ersehnt oder gefürchtet, unvermeidbar oder herbeigeführt: Das Ende ist nie eine Tatsache, sondern immer eine gedeutete Tatsache vor dem Horizont anderer Tatsachen...

...Der letzte Vorhang ist noch nicht gefallen. Und ist nicht das Interesse für das Ende ein leidenschaftliches Interesse für´s Weitergehen, für die Fortsetzung, die Umkehr, den Anfang, für ein Leben in größerer Fülle als bisher? Ob angekündigte Weltenden, das Ende der Kindheit, das Ende der DDR, ob Black, Tod, das Happy End, der Abschied, Zerfall, der Vorhang, der Countdown, das Fade Out, der Schlussakkord, die Katastrophe, die Lösung oder die Vollendung – in Gesten, Erzählungen und Bildern werden Enden von bigNOTWENDIGKEIT heraufbeschworen, seziert, zelebriert, und neu montiert....

...Der Countdown läuft. Das Ende ist nah."

Regie: bigNOTWENDIGKEIT (Anna K. Becker & Katharina Bischoff)
von & mit: Esther Becker, Danijela Milijic
Dramaturgie: Heike Pelchen
Bühne: Ina Vera
Licht: Minna Heikkilä
Musik/Sound: Alice Ferl
Assistenz: Anne Herwanger
Produktionsleitung: ehrliche arbeit - freies kulturbüro

Next show dates:
18., 19., & 20. September:    Rote Fabrik Clubraum, Zürich, CH

2011 Recap part 3: Turn the Page

My biggest design job of this past autumn was "Turn the Page" for bigNOTWENDIGKEIT. We were working on a theme of self-narration and the documents and momories people leave behind them. 



"Turn the page" brings five performers on stage to explore diaries, letters and pictures and the documentary traces left behind by five other lives. Out of these they try to create "ideal biography". Through the stories, they explore the strategies and mechanisms of self-narration and thus throw questions of self-construction, self-presentation and the ingredients for a successful thing perceived as life.

One of the early sketches

The first explorative phase took place in Zürich in October and from there we moved to Berlin in November.

All photos © Gerhard F. Ludwig / fotofisch-berlin.de

 

Фузион!

For the last weekend of June I managed to escape Berlin city-fumes and travel some 130 kilometers up north to little place called Lärz.

Lärz is literally in the middle of nowhere. There is an old formerly Russian airport on which some punks bought and arrange there every summer this humongous festival called Fusion. I've never seen anything like that.

The map of the airport city.

One half of the program.

Of course I've been to festivals in Finland and so on, but one cannot really compare this to them. On the huge areal there is something like 20 stages and places, where they stage shows for more or less 24 hours a day for 4 days for the audience of closely 100 000 people.

There is main stage, but the program is not so concentrated around happenings there as it many times is elsewhere. There is tens of thousands of people, but it doesn't feel so packed at all, because of the big space and more spread-out program. I actually found it hard to believe that there is so many people.

The ideology of the festival is somewhat of creating a parallel society for 4 days, where everybody can find their own way, space and time for action and unite with others, without prejudice and borders. And hope to make world a better place, at least for these four days.

The whole attitude of this festival is more chilling out and laying back. Somehow all the people, both guests and the orgnisation, are very relaxed and friendly. And it's not just about music, on the offer is also theater performances and film screenings. And some art-works distributed around the area, such as installations and sculptures.

Something is happening somewhere any given time.

View to the camping area from top of the Cabaret hangar.

Youtube-clip of some scenes by dEEcorPyro.

One of the reasons why I really enjoyed this festival was the fact, that it smells like Asia to me =). The vapours snaking to the air from all the food-stalls selling the variety of vegetarian food (no meat allowed on the site) and the spices they use; curries, coconutmilk, chilis... Incence sticks... weed... And also the the toilets in the heatwave of +30-something*C temperature =) =)

Weather was remarkably good for the time I was there, albeit in the nighttime it dropped to 12*C. So warm layers were really needed there, but it was so beautiful to go see the sunrise! The big variation of temperature is due of the vast open area and clear skies.

Below some impressions....

Chilling out @ Kalkutta on Sunday afternoon.

Setting sun @ Turmbühne and feather in the hat.

The real earworm of Fusion 2010
by Synapsenkitzler @ Tube Station

Salon de Baile.

Cabaret hangar.

Hmm. Got it.

Bachstelzen.

Bicycle-energy 4 the band =)
(4 Bikes on the right side of stage provide energy needed)
Ecological.

Lasers were quite amazing. Video by SexyStulle.

Blind man & Rubick's cube

This week I've been in Berlin again, to set up yet another series of shows of our adaptation of Medea aka "Keep on searching for a heart of gold".

Our venue this time is Theaterdiscounter, which is quite ok place just around the corner from Alexanderplatz, on Klosterstrasse. The first performance will take place tonight and I'm somewhat ready to shoot.

It was a long road to get there, though, but I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. I was told that the equipment at Theaterdiscounter is a mishmash of old fixtures and they didn't quite have everything I needed. So, eventually I rigged up a variety of different stuff begged and borrowed around Berlin to top up TD's gear. And it looks ways better than I hoped for. How cool is this!

The biggest obstacle turned out to be the light console. Theaterdiscounter has a relatively old console by German manufacturer Transtechnik. Very reliable, real machine-look and lots of possibilities, but... But! But, it speaks Transtechnikian or something similar, so even though I know enough German to get by, I was totally lost with this one!

Usually, in my experience, even with unknown consoles, it's possible to manage, because you can guess which button does what, since the terminology and shortenings are somewhat universal. But, not with Transtechnik. There, for example, normal channel (usually known as CH or CHAN) is called SK (comes from word Strohmkreis) and delete (DEL) answers to a name LOE (löschen, written without o with dots Ö-> oe).

So, I really needed an interpreter with programming. And the manual was in German and didn't have an index, so finding things in it took forever. As the house technician said: "I feel like a blind man with Rubick's cube..." I can soooo second that!

In the end everything turned out ok though and next time I know what to expect. So to live is to learn. Even if it's to learn to solve puzzle blindfolded =)

Design: no-bullshit 70's charm

German X-files aka Akte X, almost

Say whaaaat?

Ssssss....

You are in photos, Jason - Pictures of searching

A handful of photos from my latest production in Berlin.

"Keep on searching for a heart of gold"
by bigNOTWENDIGKEIT.

Breaking the illusion.


"Who is Medea?" Different definitions.


Medea the Paragon.


The ritual. Shamanism. Magié. Myth.


Beautiful in it's death.


"Du machst es gut, Jason!" Dark waters, sea scape.


"Why are the children looking at me in that strange way?"


"I'm your cancer, your misfortune, your downfall..."


The illusion. Magic. Birdie.

Keep on searching for a heart of gold in Berlin

I spent again some three weeks in Berlin. This was a final phase for bigNOTWENDIGKEIT's (BN) project revolving around Medea by Euripides.

It was really nice to work again with Anna and Katharina, the director-duo of BN, and Anna-Katharina and Esther, two actresses whom I also worked with before. I also made some new friends with this project; Sahar, a very nice actress bubbling with positive energy, and Wolfram; a real priceless go-doer in bringing the set elements to life. All in all it was very rewarding to work with this ensemble, somehow we hit it off pretty well. I'm looking forward to take the production to Zürich next month with them.

The approach to this classic text was very controversial. The main goal was not to present the story as such, but perhaps more to look into and study what Medea means or could represent to us and today's society. And the outcome was something more or less new. Like Stefan Rusconi, a jazz-musicial and cultural advisor, says in his cultural tips in "Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg"-tv:
"Es ist Dialog. Es ist Pop. Es ist Pantomime. Es hat Geschwindigkeit, aber auch Ruhe und das ist ein interessantes Potpourri. Ich denke das ist ein sehr sehenswertes Stück." (yeah, we made it to the telly=)

We performed on three evenings on the Hochzeitsaal in Sophiensaele and the audience was sort of plenty and quite appreciated our interpretation. All I heard afterwards was pretty positive. That's cool, since also I liked how it turned out to be. I'm quite happy about how my Medea looks at times very intimate, warm and golden, in contrast to all the horrible things they say about killing, hatred and revenge. And from the other angle, it opens up and shows all the building blocks and intestines of the production down to very last detail. - I'll post some photos later on for you to see.

Sophiensaele was a straightforward no-BS place to work and our designated technician Nicolina very nice. Technically the biggest downfall was the light console, the old war-horse MA Lightcommander 24, who had seriously seen better days, but in the end I managed to surpass the potholes of it's failing mechanics. To live is to learn, even if it's to trick the machine =)

If you missed us this time around, there will be chance to check our adaptation out in May in Fabrik Theater in Zürich (more info here). And in the end of June we'll be back in Berlin again, on stage at Theaterdiscounter on the last weekend of the month. Come to have a look if you're around!

I had also a chance to meet some friends in Berlin, which is always great. This was first time that sound designer and musician Niki Neecke participated in BN production. Niki is my old friend from Mnemopark era, so it was cool to collaborate with him again (and also to have a chance to crash on his couch fo the duration, thanx!). And once more, there was my dear friend Julia, with whom I overdosed on sushi couple of times. I also had a chance to attend to this great party thrown by a cool director Stefan Kaegi (the director of Mnemopark), where I made some new friends and met couple of ones that I hadn't seen in longest time.

It's funny how Berlin starts to feel somehow like home by now. I definately don't feel like tourist there anymore, no any kind of feeling of being compelled to run to see the Brandenburg gate or such. And I guess that I know more people in Berlin by now, than I do in Helsinki or Basel. I could definately picture myself living there. Why not...

So, Berlin, I'm glad that I visited and I'm always willing to come back to your groove! Though next time you could provide a bit better weather and exit 8-D! (Exit meaning the minor 5 hours delay with Easyjet on not so groovy Schönenfeld airport.)

Berlin Berlin!

I spent a really nice week in Berlin in the beginning of July. Weather was peachy and I hung out with my dear friends Julia and Anna, who both live in the city.

Since this was my third trip to Berlin, I didn't feel compelled to do all the touristy stuff anymore. So mostly it was just about hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere and the vibes of the place.

I stayed at Anna's who lives in Kreuzberg / Neukölln area. This is probably my favorite region of the city. Loads of cool little shops and boutiques, delicious eats in variety of nationalities, easy going atmosphere. It's so cool just stroll on the streets and spend some sunny hours by the channel in Urbanhafen. There is almost always somebody with guitar, playing nice tunes. Bring along a small picnic with you and you're all set for a nice afternoon.

Nice picnic could also take place on Kreuzberg hill. From there you can also see nice views over the city in all directions.

Facing north from Kreuzberg.

Lots of people are aware of this area, so if you yearn for more peace and quiet, the destination for you is by the Spree in Treptower Park in the east of the city (link in german, because of more photos). It's less crowded there, but equally nice. I spent a really cool day with Julia in this area, walking through this huge and very green park.

Eternal joyride?
One of the curiosities about Treptower is an abandoned amusement park in the middle of forest. Julia knew about it but hadn't never been there. So we set out to find it. This was a bit peculiar experience. -We we're by the water and saw this huge ferris wheel in the distance behind the trees, probably a kilometer away. We started to walk towards it and suddenly it vanished from the view. We walked closer and closer but it just wasn't there anymore. Then we reached the edge of the forest and, logically thinking, decided that the park has to be in there. We walked into the forest and started to follow this path.

After a while we finally come up to this fence, behind of which we can see some park gadgets all grown over with grass and shrubs. But the bloody wheel is nowhere in sight. We cooked up this storyline that would make a blockbuster horror movie: once in a lifetime you perhaps see this mirage-like ferris wheel in distance and if you try to find it, you'll end up into a forest never to be seen again. -A horror movie about this abandoned fun-park that traps people to eternal "joyride", cool huh?

Well, anyway, we were determined to find this ferris wheel. How can something that is more than 20-meters tall just disappear like that? Not possible. We walked along the fence and finally by one gate we met this guard, who instructed us some 200 meters more south. And there it finally was, the long lost wheel. But you still had to walk all the way up to the fence down there to see it behind the trees. But, yeah, it was a relief to finally find it, because we were already starting to think that we're just imagining things =)

Julia and the lost and found.

Sushi.
One of the things I absolutely love about Berlin, is the fact that you can find good Japanese food in ridiculous cheap prices. I really really love sushi and stuff and cannot afford it here in Switzerland. The prices are just outrageous in Basel. So the solution is to make it by myself or go elsewhere.

It's curious in Berlin, all the sushi joints seem to have an eternal happy hour. Generally daily 12-22 all the sushi is priced -50%. But in reality this extends through whole opening hours. And therefore one can get a meal containing miso-soup, tea and 3-6 nigiris and 6 makis for just 5 or 6 euros. My kind of city, indeed.

For the best quality sushi, head down to Aki Tatsu restaurant on Bergmannstrasse 93. Aki Tatsu is restaurant chain, so they are in several places in the city, but the Bergmannstrasse is definately the nicest and best quality. -Tested and proven opinion.

Other curiosities
Arena Bade Schiff is a place to go if youre not repelled of too many other sun-bathers on a restricted area. It is actually a floating swimming pool in the Spree. Go early and there might be a chance to place your towel down somewhere and even spread it out. I was there with Anna one afternoon. It was crowded, but nonetheless okay one-time-experience, because while we were there, a sort of gospel choir turned up. So, we had this entertainment of about twenty really skilled people floating in the swimming pool and singing =) (really well, I might add...)

In the evenings on the same area one can find a wide selection of nice restaurants by or on the water. Cool hang outs, definately. But these also seem to be the must-destinations in Berlin, so lots of people find their way there.

Mauerpark flea market in Prenzlauer Berg area every Sunday. This is a place to go even if you have no interest in flea markets. A big maze of booths and tables with all imaginable items for sale. Prices are reasonable and variety is great. My tip of the day would probably be the great selection of relitively cheap vinyl-albums and some cool designer items. Here I could spend a whole sunny day exploring the assortment and chilling out in one of restaurants.

Wall paintings and graffitis all over the city. -these I find very interesting. I could spend so much time just browsing these through the city. East Side Gallery is something special: a strip of the old Berlin Wall all covered up with wall art, paintings and, of course, messages of numerous visitors from all over the world.

Happy together in Kreuzberg. Cute.

Generally. In all the places I go, I enjoy just to walk around and see what's around me. Sometimes I find very cool and curious things, other occasions I amuse myself with funny sentences and / or mis-spellings of things. Some samples follow:

Bakery in Wedding: we bake. you king.
Okay, if they sa so...

Ladies rest room, quite literally, in Burger-King in Treptower:
Holder for paper bags for sanitary stuff.

Same place:
Toilet paper holder.
I don't even wanna know
what the designers were thinking.

Vienna and Berlin 10.-19.05.08

I decided to tag along when Mitch needed to go for work to Vienna and Berlin. He was supposed to load and drive two trucks with containers from Austria to Germany fro Markthaler project "Platzmangel". I have never really been to Austria before, just driving through.

Mitch had lousy night-shift for dismantling and loading the set to containers, so he pretty much slept the following day and I went to explore Vienna on my own. First I decided to go see this church near Museum Quartier, which had triggered my interest the day before.

Square Karlsplatz / Karlskirche

Schloss Shönbrunn

Since it was such a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, I continued my journey to Schloss Shönbrunn, the palace I got to know already in my childhood from the New Year's Concert programs. I had heard that the gardens are really worth visiting. The palace itself didn't interest me so much, but the gardens really delivered what was promised. Everything was blossoming and blooming and colors were so fresh. The only downfall of this was that there was lots of other enthusiasts on the same mission as I.

Sign suggests that you shouln't go under the old trees in stormy weather.

One of the many statues of the gardens.

Fairly exotic duck on one of the fountains.

And cute ducklings, o springtime!

Corridor of vines.

Prater

In the evening we went together to Prater, the old amusement park of Vienna. we managed to spend there quite some time admiring all the gadgets. There was lots of new blinky and sparkly new stuff, but also many old-fashioned attractions. Some of the scenes were fairly kitschy, but in a way cute too.

Rainbow-wall of children's attraction.

Old rides.

Very old wooden slide-thing, now under renovation.

Some of the decorations were designed in a relatively "not just for kids"-way. Like this damsell in distress on the wall of one of the spooky ghost trains.

Save the lady?

After just one day off, we headed towards Prague and Berlin with the first truck. On our way there it was amazing to see all the fields blazing yellow with turnip rape -something that you expect to see in Finland only after midsummer, two months later.

Surprising to me was also the realisation that I had missed the lakes so much! In Switzerland there is not so much open water as I'm used to in Finland and when I saw the sunlight dancing on the waves somewhere in southern Czech, it just hit me.

Cinderella castle not so far from Danube Island, Vienna.

A snapshot from the truck-window.

Somewhere in Southern Czech.

Berlin

I had an excellent week in Berlin. Mitch was again working for the most of the time, so I had perfect chance to meet my friends in the city. this was my second time there and I realised that I probaly know as many people over there by now as I do in Helsinki. Cool, I think that if I was to move in another city, it could easilly be Berlin. Kreuzberg suits my character....

I met my friend Rahel over dinner, Julia and Johanna to go to see a play "The next level Parzival" by Theater Basel in Hau 2. With J+J I also did some bar-hopping and checking out the city in general. Great! I have to get to Berlin soon again.

With Mitch we went to check out some fleamarkets and invested way too much money on old lp's.

Weather was also still pretty okay, so I also spent quite some time just hanging out by the channel in Kreuzberg, catching the sun and reading my book (the Swarm by Frank Schatzing). It's quite lively over there, lots of people doing exactly the same hanging out as I was, some Spaniards playing guitars and flutes, swans grooming themselves less than two meters away. Easy going atmosphere.

I dig Berlin!!!