MEDO/ANGST

Vivadança Festival Salvador

25 + 26 apr 2019

9 + 10 jun 2019 Sommerblut Festival Köln
11 + 13 jul 2019 asphalt Festival Düsseldorf

Against the backdrop of Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 election to government in Brazil, MEDO/ANGST was created as a reaction with the tools that art has at its disposal, as an attempt of a performative answer to a right-wing populist policy that deprecates or even persecutes minorities.
The vicious circle of fear remains terrifyingly virulent in the post-pandemic era, too, and MEDO/ANGST therefore also remains highly topical, for the fear of the other is amounting phenomenon of our times. Instilling and stoking this fear is the preferred instrument of power employed by the New Right – in Germany as well as in more and more nations across the globe. Simultaneously, fear is growing among the groups and individuals who are marked out as non-conforming, they dread reprisal, or even have to endure it already on a daily basis: Fear impregnates and gives birth to itself in an apparently infinite cycle.

MEDO/ANGST is an exploration of possible paths to tread in confronting these social and political charges: In the sense of self- and third-party questioning, of juxtapositioning, and of – if you will – a search for lost freedom in art. With an ensemble of Brazilian and German dancers as well as well-known Brazilian LGBTQ+ activists, we embark on a quest for a commonly shared idea of identity – not dependent on locale, time, culture, nor religion.

Direction and Choreography: Ben J. Riepe
Artistic Assistance: Gwen Wieczorek
Performance: Sauane Costa, Sebastião Abreu, Thor Galileo, Wendel Lima, Tyshea Suggs e Aaron S. Davis
Stage Design: Ben J. Riepe, Gwen Wieczorek
Lighting Design: Luiz Guimarães, Ben J. Riepe
Costume Design: Thiago Romero & Tina Melo e Lucas Montty, Ben J. Riepe, Gwen Wieczorek
Soundtrack: João Millet Meirrelles
Choreographic Assistance: Daniel Ernesto Müller
Vocal Coach: Carolina Rüegg
Technical Director: Philipp Zander
Project Manager: Baobá Producões Artisticas, Till Freese, Dina ed Dik, Jessica Prestipino
Coordination: Izaskun Abrego
PR: Nassrah-Alexia Denif
Photos: Edgar Azevedo, Alexander Basile, Ursula Kaufmann

Production: Ben J. Riepe, Goethe Institut, Baobá Produções, Centro Cultural Plataforma, Coproduction: Asphalt Festival // Collaborators: Sommerblut Festival Cologne, Weltkunstzimmer Dusseldorf.
Financed by: Kunststiftung NRW, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Goethe Institut, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf. Medo/Angst is financed by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office.

Summerschool: workshops, talks, perspectives and performances with the team of MEDO/ANGST and guests in the framework of the Weltkunstzimmer summerschool 2019.
More info here.

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