In Transit 09

The seventh edition of IN TRANSIT: Ten days of performative, theoretical and practical debates about an age-old subject that spans the history of capitalism and is charged with political significance through each new crisis. Ten days of reflecting on the fine line between the status of the object and being the subject, a focus of contemporary performance art.

The Berlin premiere of Sankai Juku from Japan opens the festival. In their work, we discover the pulverized body of Butoh, alternating between becoming plant, animal, human, and ghost. IN TRANSIT 09 ends with Mathilde Monnier. The French choreographer and the famed Spanish performer La Ribot take on burlesque in “Gustavia”— playing anti-heroines in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin.

El Periférico de Objetos from Argentina present a powerfully expressive piece located somewhere between theater and installation: bodies, images, voices and things tell stories that we all too often don’t want to hear. And El Periférico’s co-founder Emilio García Whebi, has staged a self-ironic text by Sophie Calle together with Maricel Alvarez. Mapa Teatro is here with a production based on a work by Händl Klaus – in the juxtaposition of steamy tropics and cool Alps the conditions of present day Columbia shine through. And in a video enactment of the worst Mexican science fiction film ever made, they introduce us to Latin American popular culture and machismo. Melati Suryodarmo from Indonesia, creates a tableau vivant for voice, violin and seven white rabbits. Allen S. Weiss from the U.S. directs a disturbing work for Puppet Theater using the critically acclaimed and eerie puppets of the French artist Michel Nedjar. Weiss will also create a sound installation for the festival with some of the most influential sound artists in North America. Yingmei Duan from China is building a massive environment from ten tons of Berlin’s trash. There an actor, a pianist, a singer, a girl, and Yingmei Duan will encounter the public in a space of living memories, where objects become things and people spirits. Maria Jose Arjona shows her provocative performative installation in three stages in the foyer - "Violence Permeates and Changes Everything.”. Hooman Sharifi / Impure Company (Norway) begins a long-term work about a utopic, almost paradisiacal coexistence between humans and animals / nature. Adrian Piper (USA / Germany) premiers her installation "Everything # 5.2." to blow-up "walled-in" conditions. Julie Tolentino (USA) works on "CRY OF LOVE" and together with Ron Athey (USA) she painfully puts into practice the idea of the body as archive. Nevin Aladag (Turkey / Germany) traces the fine fissures between cultures – and the fissures in how they are perceived. The group deepblue headed by choreographer Heine R. Avdal checks out the theatrical space and all of its components, and Trajal Harrell the status of the actor, of the people in performance as show. The young Spaniard Aitana Cordero gains sovereignty by “playing” the object's status as both virtuosic and terrifying. In cooperation with the Tanzfabrik Berlin, performances revolve around the confrontations and synergies of contemporary dance that link South Africa and Europe: "Cross Currents".

As in 2008, a lecture series plays an integral role in the festival, with Fred Moten, Adrian Piper, Allen S. Weiss, Peter Pál Pelbart, Laura Harris, Klaus-Peter Köpping, Adrian Heathfield, Tanja Ostojic. The interactive library will also return. And of course parties and numerous other events promise to turn this festival into a memorable ten-day experience.

Curator: André Lepecki