LIQUID

LIQUID
Part 2 of the 4 Life cycle: Earth Water Fire Air
The Anthropocene is the proof that undivided power is doomed to fail.

PR: 24. May 2024, 8 pm
25., 8 pm / 29., 8 pm / 30., 8 pm Mai 2024
01., 8 pm / 02., 6 pm / 08., 8 pm/ 09., 6 pm / 13., 9 pm / 14., 8 pm June 2024
Further dates (additional dates or double performances on request)
Start at the collective's mobile venue THE SMALL CONTAINER at Ebertplatz
Finish: Rhine near the Bastei

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

With LIQUID, WEHR51 is continuing its sustainability cycle, which began in 2023 with the spectacular death of an oak tree in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum. After EARTH, the element of water is now at the centre of the performative multi-media research.

WEHR51 is staging a performative media walk that combines exhibition elements, video/animations, Rhine water compositions, scientific findings, mythical and literary images and places them in socio-political and provocative contexts. Guided by a narrator's voice over headphones and a performer, the audience embarks on a journey from Ebertplatz to the Rhine, encountering the history of water, its memory and its involuntary recollections.

The walk explores the significance of water on its winding paths from the deep sea to the big city, from the cold poles to the Rhine transport artery, from the underground sewers to the ear canals. Listening to water, giving it a voice and fighting for its rights is a central theme of the performance, which has a major political dimension, as nature, territories, river courses, habitats, animals, seas and plants must be granted legal rights. Rights that are enforceable. These demands, which have since been enshrined in the constitutions of countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and many others, arose primarily in America on the initiative of the first inhabitants. This is because water is a vital resource that large corporations have recognised as a consumer product that is becoming increasingly polluted and limited due to industry, lifestyle and carelessness. The source of life, threatened, powerful and violent, icy cold and airy, intangible and yet stunning, beautiful and terrible, grave and source of life at the same time. In the climate catastrophe, water reveals the full range of its power and vulnerability as sea levels and temperatures rise.

For LIQUID, WEHR51 is cooperating with Sea-Eye, Seebrücke and the motoki_Kollektiv, among others, who are working particularly intensively on projects for sea rescue in the Mediterranean. Joint campaigns and events are planned and bridges will be built to the topic in the media walk. Another partner is "der kleine Container", which is a contact point on Ebertplatz, as well as the project space of the City of Cologne, which will serve as an exhibition space for water samples.

Artistic directors: Andrea Bleikamp, Jens Standke, Rosi Ulrich / Director: Andrea Bleikamp / Texts/dramaturgy: Rosi Ulrich / Video: Jens Standke / Production management: Anke Schmitz / With: Asta Nechajute, Anna Möbus / Interior design: Claus Stump / Costume: Paula Noller / Assistant director: Gina Bensch / Lighting design: Jan Wiesbrock / Technical designer: Jan Kutscher