BLACK LAND – Performing Memory

About

A project by Elena Sinanina, Attila Csihar and ensemble, funded by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin, in cooperation with Verena Lepper / Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, National Museums in Berlin (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), CTM Festival, and silent green.

After a successful presentation of the first part of BLACK LAND on Berlin's Museum Island in July 2022, the project now closes on October 28th, 2022, with circular performances and installations at the Betonhalle of silent green Kulturquartier. The works presented there were developed especially for the Betonhalle and will be shown to the public for the first time in October.

BLACK LAND is a series of performances and installations that represent an attempt to remember testimonies of Ancient Egypt and to make the knowledge they hold fruitful for the present. Papyri from Elephantine become witnesses and actors alike, together with text fragments and objects of different origins. What stories do the ancient texts tell us? Who is speaking to whom? Who remembers? Can we remember together something for which there is no language?

A “Performing Memory” is an effort to draw lines of tradition back into a past that is still untapped. Is there a common ground on which we stand when we look at the past from multiple perspectives and remember? What do we understand of Egypt today, in a Europe on the brink? BLACK LAND assembles interdisciplinary and international artistic perspectives on the subject.

The installation and performance at the "Betonhalle" will feature the musicians Charles Hedger, Anabelle Iratni and Roman Lemberg, as well as the musician, singer and performer Attila Csihar and the singer Vera Maria Kremers. Csihar developed the project together with artistic director Elena Sinanina. Yara Mekawei's contribution was curated by Oliver Baurhenn (CTM Festival). The sound installation features the two Berlin-based actresses Kenda Hmeidan and Lea Draeger.

Concept and artistic direction: Elena Sinanina; Consultation partner additional sound projects: Oliver Baurhenn/ CTM Festival; Costumes: Karin Merten (Bühnenservice Berlin) based on designs by Elena Sinanina; Composition BLACK LAND: Charles Hedger, Attila Csihar, Anabelle Iratni; Composition »Isolde’s Transfiguration« after Richard Wagner:

Roman Lemberg; Dramaturgy: Rabelle Ramez Erian and Maria Buzhor; Curatorial Advisor: Verena Lepper; Consultation partners Egypt: Walaa El Shazly, Kerylos Aziz; Sound Design: Christopher von Nathusius; Video: Kathrin Krottenthaler; Video-Documentation: Judit Fruzsina Jesse; Project Management: Anne Diestelkamp; Organisation in Egypt: Ahmed Adel Graphic Design: Ada Favaron

With the kind support of Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Zelfo Technology GmbH, and LEIPA Group.

https://ctm.stager.nl/black%20land/tickets