Foto: Janto Djassi

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Theater der Welt

June 2017

Abstract ... by Caroline Herfert ... From: # 12 Angedockt: All eyes on the harbor! A review of "Theater der Welt" in Hamburg and its topics: Globalization, Escape, Migration./Universität Hamburg / Germany Research Center Hamburg (post-) colonial heritage

One of the most exciting and touching experiences of this festival is for me site-specific productions that have been developed in and for Hamburg and which deal with the registration of history (s) in the urban space. They contributed to the realization of a central concern of the international festival: "Bringing us closer to unfamiliar worlds, changing or expanding our own view of the global through the lens of the local" [4], according to Thalia director Joachim Lux.

One of these remarkable, creative explorations of Hamburg, which aimed to perceive the city with different eyes, was the "Urban Bodies Project" by Yolanda Gutiérrez. With the imperative "decolonize!" The production took the audience to an artistic-scientific search for the trace of colonial inscriptions in the citys landscape. With headphones we were listened to ideas on the topos of the ship and the plantations, which are reflected in the architecture of the Chilehaus; There were facts about the trade in colonial goods and the wealth that the Hanseatic city earned in trade with the colonial world - and for which the Speicherstadt remains until today; Read passages from Achille Mbembe's "Critique of Black Reason" recalled memories of the genocide of Herero and Nama, but also of the renaming of street names with colonial references in the port city. Accompanied by performers and dancers *, and interrupted by their interventions, this complex audio walk from the Chilehaus to the festival grounds at the Baakenhöft was able to create dynamic tensions between past and present, historical abysses and diverse perspectives on the Hafencity as the youngest district Hamburgs.

Project description:
Hardly somewhere else, the colonial past of Hamburg's is so noticeably manifests itself as in the harbour. On the 1887-built granary bridge, the gateway to the port, the sandstone figures of Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama are there high up on the pedestal With Gama world map and Golden Sword. And in Hamburg's youngest district, HafenCity teeming streets, squares and buildings, which are named after World "conquerors" such as Marco Polo or so-called "colonial". A new wave of romanticized, colonial nostalgia?

The German Mexican choreographer Yolanda Gutiérrez explore traces to colonial stories in the port together with the scientist Tania Mancheno and an ensemble of five dancers and performers for Theater der Welt 2017. A site-spefici walk from Speicherstadt into the HafenCity exploring through dance the urban space and places and monuments in a new context. The HafenCity is the game square of braided way, stories and body that invite their presence and background information on new interpretations. Through interventions, urban rituals, and large-format video projections is the city and their past questions, overwritten and transformed - a trans-disciplinary experimental arrangement to the decolonization of the Hamburg City area.

Decolonize your mind! Decolonize your body! Decolonize your city!

Artistic Director/Concept/Choreography: Yolanda Gutiérrez
Dramaturgy: Jens Dietrich
Scientific Collaboration: Tania Mancheno
Costume and maskas: Jumu Monster
Choreography/Dance/Performance: Kossi Sébastien Aholou-wokawui, Moussa Isiaka, Sarah Lasaki, Trinidad Martínez, Annika Scharm.
Produktionsbetreuung: Christine Focken

Audio recordings
Katharina Kerllermann / Speaker: Tania Mancheno/Meriem :
Chilehaus (Station 1), Brücke Poggenmühlenbrücke (Station3), Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg (Station 5)

Yolanda Gutiérrez, Jens Dietrich / Speaker: Judith Mauch, Ernest K. Pacha, Moussa Issiaka, Kossi Sébastien Aholou-wokawui.
Wandrahmsteg (Station2), Brooktorkai (Station4) Lohsepark-Baakenhöfenbrücke (Station 6 - Extract from Achilles Mbembe "Critique of black reason")

Elbpromenade-Yokohamastr. "How to hear the invisible-Echo" von Katharina Kellermann

With friendly support from Körber Stiftung

Funding by Ministry of Culture and Media