Stimmen zum künstlerischen Prozess...

We have embarked on a journey

We have embarked on a journey. And in the process, the “we” has changed. It began long before the actual journey as a small “we”, initially of two who had the idea, or of five who already knew each other, or of eight as an artistic production team. The “we” had already grown continuously, branched out to Lomé, via Leipzig and France, changed in a wafting way, is now in March 2021 perhaps less tangible than it was a year ago at the beginning of the process, but all the more clearly connected to each other. Much has become possible, carried by many. A collaborative process, contradiction and discussion, being a guest and a host. Through many conversations within the team at the Münchner Kammerspiele, which first had to get to know each other in this constellation. Through many conversations far away, via email, messenger, video conferences. Through many encounters in reality in Lomé, Atakpamé, Kamina, Wahala. Perhaps the “we” is already so big, so branched out, so exciting, so contradictory, so lacking in unity that it can no longer be adequately described with the word “we”.
Olivia Ebert

A third culture

Group travel in times of pandemic as an experimental arrangement. The desire for processing, for coming to terms, the search for answers. To recognise and allow this state of drifting between worlds, to feel alive and at home in both worlds, to know like-minded people at one’s side and to draw confidence from this, to visit the old places and trace history, to perceive and examine one’s own truths. In the cohesion of a community that is neither too little African nor too much European, the solution is hidden, a third culture. The solution is art, not politics - perhaps this is the new story.
Komi Togbonou

Long-distance conversation - voice messages in the final rehearsal week

Olivia Ebert, Martin Weigel, Jan-Christoph Gockel, Nancy Mensah-Offei

Olivia: We’ve been working together for a long time now, going from a small nucleus to a bigger and bigger group. We got together before the summer, then in November we organised our first phase of work together with a first meeting with Elemawusi Agbédjidji, a first sykpe with Paulin Koffivi Assem, a workshop on racism-critical cooperation with Tsepo Bollwinckel. And then with the trip to Togo in February 2021, the contacts became more and more numerous. When you recapitulate this whole journey with all the questions, contents, encounters - how would you describe it and what were the special moments for you?

Martin: For me, the most important thing in this work process was the encounter. The different perspectives on a topic that concerns us all, on a story that we share. I asked the dramaturge and actor Marlène Douty, with whom I was able to work in the workshop, whether he could imagine going into a common future based on my character - a globally active entrepreneur, a person in the white dominant society in Europe. Of course, I am also a kind of representative - whether I want to be or not. He said - and I don’t find this at all self-evident - he could only imagine the future together, and: sometimes you have to tell the past in order to be able to go into the future. That was a key experience for me. Also because he clearly described once again: colonial history still affects him today and continues to have an impact on his reality.

Jan-Christoph: For me, it is not only about gaining knowledge, but also about the encounter with another reality or with a global reality in Lomé, where we did historical research, but actually also learned something about the year 2021: What does Corona mean globally and how is Corona dealt with in Togo? That was an abandonment of one’s own perspective and a questioning of one’s own fears.

What makes the project special for me is the working constellation: it has grown permanently, with the ensemble and the team here and the unbelievable number of collaborations we have entered into and are still working on permanently. It’s a process that doesn’t start from one text, one perspective, but seeks a permanent exchange - with each other and, experimentally, with the world - which wasn’t so easy in this last year. And that was and is the most important working tool for me to create this evening: the shared authorship.

Nancy: I have never been able to experience such a rehearsal process, which has so much space and so much time and then also involves a journey. And I feel like that allowed us to get to know and find very different perspectives, fortunately.

I thought it was great that we managed to say: yes, we send out signals, we somehow connect in this Zoom reality, Skype, What’s App - and we actually go there. We simply go there. In these times when there is so much fear, that is an incredibly beautiful sign.

Christoph Leibold has written a detailed report on our collaboration for the Goethe-Institut, which can be read here: http://peachesandrooster.de/wir-schwarzen-muessen-zusammenhalten-eine-erwiderung/.

You can find more impressions from the artistic process on the blog of peaches & rooster: http://peachesandrooster.de/news/