Day 4: More water, left overs and no exit strategy for Tim Etchells

Tuesday morning: confused individuals awake on several couches. What has happened last night? Was it a fruitful discussion last night? Where did the memory go? Ohhh… the wine, the wine, of course. Note by the editor: do not mix discussions about artistic structures and processes with larger quantities of alcohol unless you like fade outs at the end.

But all that was forgotten when 20 brave people hopped, coordinated, fell and flew in Sebastian Matthias’ Body Color training. A joyful experience for pros and newbies, painters and soccer players, fully awake and totally sleepy people. From there into the studio buzz, ideas were being forged, work benches made, questions answered and a constant feverish exchange of ideas and concept.

The ultimate highlight of the day was the bikini slide water wars in the k32 videos. Due to visual nature of this event, the author requires still permission of the involved persons to post a video of the event and hopes to share this manifestation of glee and bliss later in the day.

Believe it or not, some people were actually leaving Kampnagel in the evening, because good old Tim Etchells was in town and ready to talk. We nagged him with many questions and found out, that Forced Entertainments pieces are not to be performed by others, that the company mostly sits around in the studio being stuck for almost 26 years now and that there is no real exit strategy how to get out of this bloody mess of making contemporary theatre. Way to go Tim!!! Die with your boots on…

p.s.: and now the promised video….

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Day 3: Bonding by boats, barbecue and late night discussions

Of course art is always challenged by the season. The black box is no safe heaven against the seductive power of summer, sun and bathing weather and so the very first proper working day was devided between honest and semi sincere studio work and holiday feeling. While some dived into training, projects and making music, others dived into the cold water and became pirates of the Alster channels for a few hours.

After this day divided inbetween work and leisure, sweat and sweet water, sun and serenity, a festivity with dual implications: the birthdays of Rosa Wernecke and Min Kyung Lee were celebrated with frisbees and barbecue, followed by some mild music and singalong.

The writer of this humble lines then retired to rescue the first victim of a virus plague that currently eats its way through the participants. But the day was not over yet and in the short hours, a discussion about the past, present and future of Sweet&Tender was made, till the first silver stripe on the horizon in the east reminded the people to lay their head to rest for another day to come.

p.s.: Jassem Hindi with a memory protocol from the late night discussion: “Sweet and Tender realized that love stories grow old. We tried not to tell a tale and keep a bit of perspective on what we did, who we were, where we were going, and how to keep that old horse running. Unfortunately, alcohol helping, we got a bit confused and “some of us” talked too much. All in all, something about an old desire, and ways to keep it alive. To keep a balance between spontaneous art collaborations and challenging means of production…and a lot of cheesy songs from all over the world.”

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Day 2: More presentations, topographies of ideas and self made pesto

Epic summer weather. A large table in the yard. Our heroes gathered around to tell each other ideas and strategies, projects and proposals. Everything brought to a large map of ideas, that will transform into a hypertextual structure of proposals and desires over the next days.

Then another 12 total participants encountering the marvelous pecha kucha format in their presentation. Many speak, some stay silent, letting the audience focus on their breath coming in and out of their bodies.

The evening was crowned by another delightful dinner, self made pesto, finest parmesan cheese and an ardent victory of Argentina in the world cup.

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Day 1: House rules, turkish soup and 11x20x20 seconds of presentation

Day 1. The guests were gathered and the music started playing. Only short of 2 more people, the meeting officially started with refreshing morning yoga, kitchen chitty chatty and the unavoidable first round of introduction. This was followed by a tour through the marvelous wonderland of Kampnagel that Treffen Total will occupy for the next three weeks. After a round of house rules with the generous host from K3 Matthias Quabbe, the focus turned towards organizing the space time continuum through the magical tool of the “white room”, now present as the “white wall”. A photo of this wonder shall appear here soon.

Then dispersion into smaller groups again, long needed internet and cigarette break for different forms of addiction and also hectic preparation of slide shows and power point presentation.

At six o’clock 11 presentation in the so called pecha kucha format. 20 images per participant, 20 seconds per image. Everyone managed brilliantly, everyone was happy that we could press such a huge amount of information into such a short time and everyone was delighted that the presentation was followed by our first dinner.

Enterint the stage at this point: Kolja Mirabichvili, chef de cuisine at Treffen Total. For this first evening he served a delightful turkish soup with a most miraculous yogurt mint sauce on the side. The evening found a pleasent end with a first round of astras, the local brew and the athletic triumph of Ghana over the US in the world cup.

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The eagle has landed

…and almost everyone has arrived from far, far away. Despite unruly french train systems and naughty airports, our foreign participants have come to the ol’ hansa for a first taste of astra and lapskaus. first attempt at speeches were made, cups lifted for saluts, questions asked, magical tricks performed and many words spoken. but the heroes, eager to shine on the great first official meeting tomorrow, retired to their squats, mansions and ateliers before midnight.

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Biographies online

curious browser,

enlighten your eye on the recently refurbished biography section and loose yourself in a blaze of links and hyperlinks. Simply click the artist section and then enjoy the ride through various artists’ lifes.

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