by CONSTANZA MACRAS | DORKYPARK and OSCAR BIANCHI
The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.
H. Bergson
Are we are writing a history we can no longer read?“
Kevin Slavin
A production by Constanza Macras | DorkyPark and HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden in coproduction with Schaubühne Berlin. Funded through the Doppelpass program by Kulturstiftung des Bundes. With the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
THE PAST explores the art of memory, or ars memoriae, in which memories are particularly strongly associated with physical locations, rooms and architecture. The starting point is the city as a concrete geographical location, as an anchor for memory, a mental picture and a cast of mind. What happens with our memories, what happens to those who are remembering when these physical places are destroyed? Constanza Macras talked to eyewitnesses who can remember cities that no longer exist in the same form today. The actions in the piece refer to the ancient techniques of ars memoriae, whereby in order to recall the thing to be remembered, we first have to find and organise our impressions. At the heart of this mnemonic technique is spatial orientation. How do we use rooms and places to remember?
The piece explores architectonic places as narrative instruments of our history – in the rewriting of history, for overcoming the wounds of the past, and for understanding contemporary events (personal and global) as part of a constant cycle that we experience as the passing of time. With music composed specially for the piece by Oscar Bianchi, THE PAST delves into collective and individual memory.
DATES
Premiere 7. + 8. November 2014, 20:00, Großer Saal, Festspielhaus Hellerau
Additional Dates 27. // 29. // 30. November & 1. December 2014, Schaubühne Berlin
CAST & CREW
Director / Choreography: Constanza Macras
Music / Composition: Oscar Bianchi
Dramaturgy: Carmen Mehnert
By and with: Louis Becker, Emil Bordás, Fernanda Farah, Luc Guiol, Miako Klein, Nile Koetting, Johanna Lemke, Ana Mondini, Felix Saalmann, Miki Shoji, Michael Weilacher
Musicians: Miako Klein, Michael Weilacher
Light: Sergio Pessanha
Sound: Stephan Wöhrmann
Stage: Laura Gamberg / Chika Takabayashi
Metal Works: Werner Knoof, Andreas Nestler
Stage Manager: Welko Funke
Technical director: Kai Kaden / Welko Funke
Costume: Alison Saunders
Costume Assistant: Daphna Munz
Assistant director: Felipe Amaya / Nikoletta Fischer
Trainees: Lea Gugger, Victor Colmenero Mir, Laia Alberich Casañas, Louise Douet-Sinenberg, Vincenzo Mazzone, Clara Calero Durán
Production Management: Katharina Wallisch
Production Office: René Dombrowski
Production Interns: Fiederike Aps, Raquel Moreira
Tour Management: Ricardo Frayha
Project coordination Doppelpass: Anne-Katrin Schmidt / Katharina Wallisch
Special thanks to the eyewitnesses Hanna Günzler, Ursula Henning,
Nora Lang und Ingrid Schulz.