LE CRI

Artistic performative accompaniment to the death of an oak tree in 15 days

LE CRI
Part 1 of the cycle 4 Life: Earth Water Fire Air
The Anthropocene is the proof that undivided power is doomed to failure.

Detailed information, documentation and streaming can be found at

www.lecri-4life.de

Enquiries under: info{at}wehr51.com or 0160 8020996

WEHR51 in co-production with the Sommerblut Kulturfestival and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum invites you to give this living creature an honourable goodbye and accompany it in its final hours. Hardly anyone has seen a tree being felled live, heard the inner cracking and crashing and felt the force with which a tree falls.

Wood is felled without anyone pausing to think about the dimensions of a tree's lifespan. About how many generations of people have passed them by. This experience and the information from the theatrically prepared contributions by a forest pedagogue have an echo that WEHR51 will take up in later events at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum.

This tree will be laid out in the museum after it has been felled. Over a two-week period, there will be performances, music, cookery courses and workshops on the subject on the museum grounds; during this time, the tree will be dismantled piece by piece.

The programme overview:

Sat. 22.04.2023
STERBEN 0 | Tree felling (excursion)
10:30 am Meeting point, Orangery Theatre, Volksgartenstr. 25
11:00 am Departure by bus to Neunkirchen Seelscheid for the professional felling of an oak tree by Sven Berkowicz, specialist agriculturist for tree care and a performative funeral speech by Laurenz Leky (Theater im Bauturm).
Approx. 14:30 End of the excursion

Tue 09.05.2023 (admission free)
DEATH 1 | Laying in state
19:00 - 22:00 Vernissage
Welcome with natural drink,
the first encounter with the laid out oak, ceremonial farewell speech to the tree, framed by the
media installation "afterlife symmetree" (the immortal code of a dead tree), Jens Standke 2023: Capturing a tree as a digital archive in order to understand its essence as a whole. In the spirit of bioinformatics and systems biology.
Life: Photo exhibition by Philipp Treudt
Insect macro images by Eberhard Weible
Changing values Installation by ökoRAUSCH - Cäcilienstraße

Wed. 10.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
19:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to the solidarity ticket)
19:00 Lecture: The communication of trees
20:00 World premiere: LE CRI video audio piece, accompanying the death of a tree, by Rosi Ulrich (text), Andrea Bleikamp (concept direction), Jens Standke (visuals) and Sibin Vassilev (composition, sound design); voices: Kai Hufnagel, Katya Tasheva, Mareile Metzner and Sibin Vassilev.
A human voice in the ecstasy of technical-technological progress encounters the exchange of trees with their environment. Can we listen and what do we understand?

Thu. 11.05.2023
DYING 2 | Debarking
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
16:00 LE CRI Video audio play, accompaniment to the death of a tree.

Fri. 12.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
Workshops in planning
16:00 h LE CRI Video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.

Sat. 13.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
Workshops in planning
13:00 LE CRI Video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.
14:30 Lecture: Neo Hölzemann: The importance of nature and experiencing nature in child and youth services
16:00 LE CRI video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.

Sun. 14.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
Workshops in planning
12:00 p.m. LE CRI video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.
14:00 Lecture: Holger Sticht (BUND): What is a forest?
16:00 Workshop: Kai Niggemann: Noise choir

Podcast:
Episodes 13 and 14: Why to save the forest with Holger Sticht (Chairman of BUND, Landesverband NRW) and Michael Zobel (nature guide and forest educator), moderated by Dorothea Marcus

Tue. 16.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
16:00 LE CRI Video audio piece, accompaniment to the death of a tree.
DYING 3 | delimbing
19:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to the solidarity ticket)
19:00 h Lecture: Kristina Hopp (graduate restorer RJM): Wood has no memory - a contribution from the field of restoration
20:00 h Music DJ set from tree sounds to craft machine sounds. The oak tree will be stripped of its branches.

Wed. 17.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00 h
Installations and exhibition
16:00 LE CRI Video audio piece, accompaniment to the death of a tree.
19:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to the solidarity ticket)
19:00 h wooden transition: Live performance, visuals, recorder and electronics with Dagmar Wilgo, Andreas Kolinski and Patrick Arnold
20:00 h Hildegard von Bingen: Streaming of the performance by Nils Amadeus Lange, followed by a discussion

Thu. 18.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00 h
Installations and exhibition
11.00 h Performance: Constantin Leonhard
12:00 h Workshop: Andrea Bleikamp & Rosi Ulrich: Modern natural cuisine
16:00 h LE CRI Video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.

Fri. 19.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
STERBEN 4 | Lengthening
20:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to solidarity ticket)
20.00 h LE CRI Video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree + art action: machine art on the trunk - the creation of a sculpture. The trunk is cut into several pieces and worked on with saws.

Sat. 20.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
15.00 Workshop: Gundermann & Co, supposed weeds in the modern natural kitchen
Further workshops in planning
20:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to solidarity ticket)
20:00 LE CRI Video audio piece, accompanying the death of a tree.
21:00 Performance: Laurenz Leky: Plants and their rights. What if we grant plants rights? A different view of nature! Followed by an audience discussion

Sun. 21.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
11:00 a.m. LE CRI video audio play, death accompaniment of a tree.
15:00 - 22:00 Special events (link to the solidarity ticket)
15:00 Lecture performance in sound and image: Kuai Shen: Rain ants: a rhythmic decolonisation into the fabric of the Sarayaku rainforest. About the rain ants in the Amazon region of the Kichwa. An insight into territorial relationships that understands the rainforest as a superorganism.
17:00 Rosa Frey: Living like a tree disc - a lecture on the circular economy.
19:00 Lecture performance in sound and image: Kuai Shen: Rain ants: a rhythmic decolonisation into the fabric of the Sarayaku rainforest.
STERBEN 5 | Dismemberment
20.00 Concert?: A chipper, a chainsaw and other machines at work, the tree loses its shape, splinters, cracks and breaks - sounds interwoven into a composition with live music and a DJ set.

Tue. 23.05.2023
10:00 - 18:00
Installations and exhibition
16:00 LE CRI Video audio piece, accompaniment to the death of a tree.
DYING 6 | funeral feast
18:00 - 21:00 Special events (link to solidarity ticket)
18:00 KIOSK Sommerblut festival centre with DJ at the Josef Haubrich Hof
18:30 Leichenschmaus: Forest menu & auction (photos and artefacts of the tree)
20:00 Procession
20:15 Concert: Dunkelwellen (Kai Niggemann & Connie Trieder): RaumZeitBaum

"4Life" is a series that aims to sensitise people to the big picture and the role of humans in these relationships, but also conveys knowledge in a sensual way. The aim of this cycle is to scrutinise our interaction with other elements and living beings, our environment and the earth and to use this to create a reflection on a possible scenario for future coexistence.
The cycle starts in 2023 with the first part: Earth. Its representative is a tree, more precisely an oak tree from a forest in Neunkirchen Seelscheid.

Patron: Barbara Foerster (Head of the Cologne Cultural Office)
Concept: Andrea Bleikamp, Rosi Ulrich, Jens Standke, Philipp Treudt | With: Patrick Arnold, Sven Berkowicz, Dunkelwellen (Kai Niggemann, Connie Trieder), Rosa Frey,  Neo Hölzemann, Kristina Hopp, Kai Hufnagel, Andreas Kolinski, Nils Amadeus Lange, Laurenz Leky, Constantin Leonard, Mareile Metzner, Kai Niggemann, Paula Noller, Kuai Shen, Jens Standke, Holger Sticht (BUND), Katya Tasheva, Tomasso Tessitori, Sibin Vassilev, Eberhard Weible, Dagmar Wilgo | Gina Bensch, Jan Kutscher, neurohr & andrä, Anke Schmitz, Franziska Schmitz, Tobias Zimmermann. | Photo: Philipp Treudt

Patron Barbara Foerster

(c) Phillip Treudt

Barbara Foerster is an art historian and has been head of the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne since the beginning of 2014. She teaches at the Institute for Art and Art Theory as a lecturer for artistic-media practice at the University of Cologne. Her focus is on art in public space. Barbara Foerster is particularly interested in art in public space and projects on the subject of cultural urban development, as they seek a direct relationship with the public and explore the limits of what is artistically acceptable, thereby discussing issues relating to urban society. 
Before joining the City of Cologne as an academic consultant for visual arts, film and literature, she worked for many years as an art critic. She was an editor in the culture department of the Mannheimer Morgen for five years and wrote for Kunstforum International, the Handelsblatt art market, etc. Between 1999 and 2001, she also helped to set up the Deubner Verlag art history worksheets as an editor. Barbara Foerster studied art history and philosophy at the University of Cologne as well as in Münster, Rome and Perugia.