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Sounds like war: Kriegserklärung (declaration of war)

A lecture-concert at the seat of war

In retrospect World War One was the last war that began with a formal declaration of war. Today the dramaturgy of starting military hostilities by a performative act has become anachronistic. Instead a period of 'international civil war' has begun which did not end in 1918/19 nor in 1945, possibly not even with the end of the Cold War.
How to end a war which has never been declared? andcompany&Co. play on language, sample meanings and tinker images. In their lecture-concert, which is especially devised for the festivalsTheaterformen (Braunschweig) and LIFT (London), they start off on the double-meaning of the German word Kriegserklärung, which signifies a declaration of war but at the same time the explanation of war, and they look for the relationship between performance art and the art of warfare. andcompany&Co. create a sound of battle with space for many voices – maybe an alternative to the so-called ‚concert of European powers’.

Cast

Conceived and performed by: Alexander Karschnia, Nicola Nord, Sascha Sulimma, Vincent van der Valk&Co.
Written by: Alexander Karschnia&Co.
Set Design: Jan Brokof&Co.
Technical Director/Light Design: Marc Zeuske
Company Management: Katja Sonnemann

A production by andcompany&Co., Theaterformen, Kaaitheater and LIFT Festival London (presented with Battersea Arts Centre and co-commissioned by LIFT, Festival Theaterformen, 14-18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions. A House on Fire project, supported by the Cultural Programme of the European Union and the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.)

  • Jan Brokof

    Jan Brokof was born in Schwedt/Oder in 1977 and studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 1999 to 2004. He became known for the replica of his own bedsit and won the Marion-Ermer-Prize in 2005. Numerous solo and group exhibitions, for instance at Folkwang Museum Essen and Leonhardi Museum Dresden, and since 2010 collaborations with andcompany&Co. as performer and stage designer for FatzerBraz in São Paulo and as stage designer for productions at DT Göttingen (Wunderkinder and Zur Sache!) as well as for the two recent productions  „Der (kommende) Aufstand nach Friedrich Schiller“ (2012) und „Black Bismarck“ (2013).
    Brokof was awarded the Otto-Dix-Prize in 2012. He lives and works in Berlin and is represented by Galeria Baer

     

  • Alexander Karschnia

    Theatre-maker and author, curator and occasional dramaturge. Co-founder of andcompany&Co., where he works as a co-director and performer. He writes about and for theatre, including Brecht, Müller, Schlingensief, Pollesch and others. Among the sins of his youth are the invention of the Frankfurt NightDanceDemos and the take over of Schlingensief’s political party CHANCE 2000. His work between science, art and activism includes lecture performances and the organisation of conferences such as EUROPE TO THE COUNCILS! at the Berlin Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, where he worked as dramaturge in the first season of René Pollesch’s directorship and curated a discourse series in the Roter Salon. He is also on the board of trustees of the KOMMUNIKATIONSAUFBAU Foundation and co-founded the “Albert O. Hirschman Prize for Interference, Contradiction and Renewal of Democratic Culture”. Karschnia is the editor of the new edition of his key work “Exit, Voice, & Loyalty”. He is currently organising the series “Thinking for the Future: The Albert O. Hirschman Effect” at the Theater im Aufbau Haus.

     

  • Nicola Nord

    theatre-maker, performer and singer. After she studied theatre-, film- and media-science at the University in Frankfurt/Main, she received an artists’ grant for DasArts (The Amsterdam School for Performing Arts). little red (play): ‘herstory’ was her final project there. She is co-founder of andcompany&Co. and contributes to the collective’s work mainly as director, co-writer and performer. Lives in Berlin.

  • Sascha Sulimma

    theatre-maker, music-producer, performer and and DJ from Frankfurt am Main, now living in Berlin, develops acoustic landscapes and music for theater and performance. He is co-founder of andcompany&Co. where he works as a co-director, musician and performer.

  • Vincent van der Valk

    Vincent Kári van der Valk (Amsterdam, 1985) graduated from the Toneelacademie Maastricht in 2010. He has worked with NTGent, de Toneelschuur and Toneelgroep Oostpool amongst others. Vincent is also an author and has written three plays and one solo performance. ANGIE O. is his third collaboration with andcompany&Co. after ‘Sounds Like War’ (2014) and ‘The (Coming) Insurrection’ (2012).