• Sat 12 – Sun 13 11 2016 •
Gintersdorfer/Klaßen
Venue: studiobühneköln, Universitätsstraße 16a, 50937 Cologne
Combined ticket for all Gintersdorfer/Klaßen events: 25 €, reduced 10 €
This event is made possible by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ as part of the Guest Performance Fund for Dance financed by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media as well as the Ministries of Culture and Art of the federal states.
Ivory Coast was once considered an oasis of prosperity in West Africa. But since the early 2000s, recession, civil war and stratospheric corruption have ravaged the country and its economic capital Abidjan. New waves of development and destruction followed in the course of so-called “recovery.” The city’s famous nightlife and music scenes have proven remarkably resilient to such tough times, creating a parallel world where the rules of poverty and politics do not apply. In a three-day program put together especially for Cologne, the theater performance group Gintersdorfer/Klaßen shows how Ivorian showbiz subverts and counteracts economic and political injustice, whose true guilty parties are still at large. Led by Academy member and director Monika Gintersdorfer and artist Knut Klaßen, the German-Ivorian group has been involved in projects in Abidjan since the mid-2000s, developing a unique dance theater in mixtures of spoken word, choreography and cinema.
Gintersdorfer/Klaßen have been developing theater and performance projects since 2005. Collaborating with international guests their Ivorian-German team presents its pieces nation and worldwide, most recently at the German Dance Platform 2010 and 2016, the Spielart Festival 2013 in Munich, the Impulse Festival 2015 and 2016, and on tour in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and other countries. In 2009 and 2010, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen developed performance festivals in various locations in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Sat 12 11 2016 / 19:00
GINTERSDORFER/KLASSEN
Black Thoughts Now – cinema in dialogue – Abidjan
Performance in French and English
Venue: studiobühneköln, Universitätsstraße 16a, 50937 Cologne
Day ticket Sat 12 11 2016: 15 €, reduced 7 €
Black Thoughts Now – cinema in dialogue – Abidjan is a film-photo live performance developed especially for Cologne by Gintersdorfer/Klaßen as part of their ongoing artistic research in Abidjan. It takes its name from a disused cinema at the end of the Rue Princesse, a legendary street of nightclubs in Abidjan. The performance tells the story of this area’s most recent wave of developments and destruction through photos commented with live improvisations, much like those made at couper decaler music and dance clubs in Abidjan, but also reminiscent of some scenes from Jean Rouch’s ethnofictional classic film Moi, un noir (1958), where young men actually become the fantasy figures of their own wishful thinking.
Sat 12 11 2016 / 21:00
GINTERSDORFER/KLASSEN
The Couper Decaler fanatics, 83', Ivory Coast, Germany 2015, color, French with English subs
Film screening, German premiere
Venue: studiobühneköln, Universitätsstraße 16a, 50937 Cologne
Day ticket Sat 12 11 2016: 15 €, reduced 7 €
Couper decaler is the name of an Ivorian fashion, music and lifestyle movement that emerged between Paris and Abidjan in the early 2000s. It was founded by a self-proclaimed jet set of dandies and DJs whose glamorous fashion displays stood in jubilant contrast to the deep crisis overwhelming Ivory Coast at the time. In the film The Couper Decaler fanatics (2015), Gintersdorfer/Klaßen follow the protagonists of this movement into a parallel reality of clubs on the outskirts of Paris and in Abidjan, where DJs “animate” and sing to ordinary partygoers, turning them into bankers, ambassadors and presidents.
Sun 13 11 2016 / 19:00
GINTERSDORFER/KLASSEN
Animation Couper Decaler
DJ set with live vocals
Venue: studiobühneköln, Universitätsstraße 16a, 50937 Cologne
Day ticket Sun 13 11 2016: 15 €, reduced 7 €
A DJ set with live singing to electronic beats. In the so-called “Atalakou”, the status of the clubbers – or in this case the theater audience – is hyped through chants. The perfect start to the evening: typical couper decaler rhythms, charming animation and masterly performed onomatopoeia characterize the Atalakou vocal style from Côte d’Ivoire.
Sun 13 11 2016 / 20:30
GINTERSDORFER/KLASSEN
The International Criminal Court
Play in French and German with ensuing discussion
Venue: studiobühneköln, Universitätsstraße 16a, 50937 Cologne
Day ticket Sun 13 11 2016: 15 €, reduced 7 €
The International Criminal Court is a dance and spoken word performance exploring the question of culpability for civil strife and its aftermath. Its starting point is the case against former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and other cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Founded to prosecute crimes against humanity beyond the pale of ordinary criminal proceedings, the ICC is currently investigating ten alleged crimes—in nine cases the accused come from countries in Africa. Counterpointing danced sections with spoken word sequences, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen examines the ascription of guilt and victimhood through this juridical body. The performance is followed by a panel discussion on the ICC with the performance’s participants.
