Choreography by Ben J. Riepe
Collaborated as Performer
Photos by Alexander Basile, Ursula Kaufmann
Video by Alexander Basile, Kurt Heuvens
A transmedial opera
In GESCHÖPFE (CREATURES), the new 2020 choreography, Ben J. Riepe, along with six performers* and two musicians*, sheds light on the brittle conditio humana between fragile creatureliness and one’s own creative, effectual powers, between deiform deed and hubris, between merciless exploitation of the environment and being at its mercy, powerless – as subject and object of a new world order, as we deemed ourselves at its pinnacle. Which possibilities of a new communality can we conceive of, in the liminal space of those dichotomies?
The reference space as well as the pictorial canon for GESCHÖPFE ranges from the history of creation and the Frankenstein myth to cyborg stories, from ancient Greek mythology to essays on the man-made Anthropocene age. At times as an exalted dance on the edge of a volcano, in the midst of elementary encounters with earth, fire, water, air and digital mechanical avatars, at times in almost meditative Shavasana, the ‘geschöpfe’ (creatures) struggle for their place in the new world order, in movement, song and sculptural moments. New, specially created music by composer Gordon Kampe connects with romanticist Lied (German Song) as well as with baroque-era sounds and Italian opera to unfold the eclectic sound of the transmedial opera.
Honke Rambow visited the team during the rehearsal period in the woods. Read more here.
For more information about the performance, visit here.
Paula Pau 