11 – 18 oct 2015 Workshop in cooperation with the Academy of Scenic Arts Sarajevo, Bosnia

19 oct 2015 Workshop performance, subsequent artist talk

In the course of the dance project Multiplex Dance Sarajevo and in cooperation with the Academy of Scenic Arts Sarajevo, by invitation from the Goethe-Institute Sarajevo a ten day workshop with local students is organized.

The dance project Multiplex Dance Sarajevo was created in the course of the long standing German-French cooperation between Goethe-Institute Bosnia-Herzegovina and Institut Français and is supported by the German-French fund.

Choreography: Ben J. Riepe
Choreographic assistant: Daniel Ernesto Müller Torres
Talk: Emir Feisic, artistic coordinator, Academy of Scenic Arts Sarajevo
Photos: Ben J. Riepe

Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina is a historic site which, during the Bosnian War from 1992-1995 was a place of separation, of the ethnical as well as the religious conflict. Today, Sarajevo is a city of contradictions, where orient and occident meet, where luxury hotels stand next to war ruins and modern mosques next to socialist residential buildings with countless bullet holes and rising unemployment drives migration. At the same time, despite the omnipresent war wounds, the concept of living religious plurality unfolds and modernity and Islam live in unison next to- and with each other. All these contradictions, inner conflicts and challenges which the city of Sarajevo and its residents are confronted with, all the political and social problems as well as the situation of the artists on site is sensed by Ben J. Riepe and incorporated in situ into his work, together with the students. At the same time, the stay marks an important moment in Riepes work. Together with the students, he further develops his theory of the different performative “modes” and establishes certain elements which will later appear in the work Untitled: Persona.