Merge – Kampnagel

at P1 may 26th through may 29th

In a photograph from 1906, a crowd in southern Rwanda gathers for a magical event in front of a small apparatus on a table: deceiving the masses through technology. Behind the table is an official of the German colonial administration. The artists sell their talent without compensation. The funnel is directed at the musicians to the right of the table. A machine that sucks in the sound, carves the voices and the music into the wax rollers.

In the music theater MERGE, Sounding Situations plays out how the process of recording makes us who we are. Those who press the record button have power, framed for themselves and others. Through repetition, sounds, music, language become part of our identity.

In MERGE, the musicians and performers become sound carriers who turn the stage into a sounding negotiation space: Who owns what and who belongs where? Who takes in whom, in himself as the foreign or as his own?

MERGE is performed in Hamburg and Bujumbura: simultaneously and in reverse, Burundian and Rwandan artists go in search of what is worth recording.

concept: sounding situations
P1, Kampnagel, Hamburg
Direction, composition, text: Sounding Situations (Milena Kipfmüller, Jens Dietrich, Klaus Janek)
Musicians: Sofia Borges, Michael Thieke, Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller Performance: Eric 1key, Katharina Mewes
Stage and video: TÒ SU (Martina Mahlknecht, Martin Prinoth)
Technical management and light design: Christopher Umney
Kostüme: Anja Ruschival
Public relations: Hark Empen
Production direction: Fabia Mekus
Assistance: Janka Kenk

Buja sans tabou, Burundi
Direction and Performance: Josué Mugisha, Claudia Munyengabe, Alain Kay Butoyi, Laura Sheila Inangoma

Supported by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media.