UUUUU(topia)

Art Stations Foundation, Stary Browar, Poznan, Poland

4/5 nov 2016

“It is about the remodeling of the world to a home, a place that all men have glimpsed in childhood; a place and a state in which no one has yet been.“

Ernst Bloch: The Principle of Hope

In cooperation with the Art Stations Foundation, through a durational performative examination develops the unknown place UUUUU(topia):  a darkened landscape which invites the visitor to dwell, to forget and to descend and in which the beauty, the bestowal of happiness and the paradisiacal can manifest in most diverse ways. UUUUU(topia) is a Landscape in the theater of the Stary Browar, which, at second glance, presents itself as a sensorily tangible space of transformation, full of dancing, playing and singing beings. Enticing sounds and choral moments of connection alternate and create a place of utopian communitization. In this cosmos of encounters, a shared field of experience of artists, performers and visitors, a utopian (social) space, establishes. In this, the body as a place of community and physical resonance space plays a central role.

The piece UUUUU(topia) is a continuation of the research on body, music and landscape, whereby the particular focus is lain on the eastern European variant of throat singing, the so called “White Voice Singing”. This serves as a starting point for an examination of bodies and sounds, presence and ephemerality.

Choreography, stage design, sound design: Ben J. Riepe
With: Laura Burgener, Lenah Flaig, Simon Hartmann, Karolina Kraczkowska, Sudeep Kumar Puthiyaparambath, Ola Osowicz, Weronika Pelczynska
Costume assistant: Gwen Wieczorek
Objects: Ensemble
Sound design: Kerim Karaoglu
Organization: Izaskun Abrego
PR: Susanne Ruprecht
Documentation: Bianca Bachmann, Okba Hzeem
Photos: Roger Rossell, Jakub Wittchen for Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk

UUUUU(topia) is a production of Ben J. Riepe, in co-production with NRW-Forum Düsseldorf and Art Stations Foundation | Grazyna Kulczyk in cooperation with Goethe-Institute Warsaw. Funded by Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) Koproduktionsförderung Tanz aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien aufgrund eines Beschlusses des deutschen Bundestages and Kunst- und Kultur Stiftung der Sparkasse Düsseldorf. With kind support from Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Choreographed Atmospheres

  • ARENA ARCTICA

    PACT Zollverein, Essen

    8 – 10 dec 2016

  • UUUUU(topia)

    NRW-Forum Düsseldorf

    2 jun – 21 aug 2016

  • WHITE VOID # 14

    Theater festival FAVORITEN 2014, Dortmund

    25 oct – 1 nov 2014