Performing Back
We should leave our tracks in these places.
Performing Back is an artistic coming to terms with the continuity of the German colonial past. At the center of the performance is Simone Dede Ayivi’s meticulous search for traces in the seemingly invisible cityscape between the highway and the swan pool.
Accompanied by the voices of Black German activists and culture makers, she travels to the sites of former human zoos, colonial memorials and streets named after colonialists, reports on resistance and visions and provides outlooks and insights.
Photo: Manuel Kinzer
Photos: Manuel Kinzer / Renata Chueire
In a compilation of found objects from the past, present and future, the attempt will be made to question hegemonic forms of writing history, deconstruct colonial and racist worlds of images and to invent a postcolonial aesthetic.
CONCEPT, PERFORMANCE Simone Dede Ayivi
SOUND, MUSIC Katharina Pelosi
VIDEO Juliane Kremberg
SCENOGRAPHY, COSTUME För Künkel
DRAMATURGY Philipp Khabo Koepsell
LIGHTING DESIGN Anahí Pérez
ASSISTANCE Mirjam Pleines, Caroline Froelich
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ehrliche arbeit –freies kulturbüro
A production by Simone Dede Ayivi and team in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Financed by funds provided by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs, the State of Lower Saxony – Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture and Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. Made possible by flausen-young artists in residence, a grant pilot project by theater wrede+.
The world premiere was on September 19, 2014 at Sophiensæle.
2015 Lichthof Theater, Theater im Pavillon, theater wrede+, Theaterhaus Hildesheim, We Are Tomorrow Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Afropean Mimicry Künstlerhaus Mousonturm
2016 LOT Theater, additional peformances Sophiensæle