Grenz.land

Berlin

A multimedia installation and dance performance in public space by 12H Dance (Moonsuk Choi & Yamila Khodr), Tzavara & Ziepert

Three dancers move in the midst of the vastness of the Tempelhofer Feld. Erato Tzavara’s video images flicker in the background. They show the faces of different people who reflect the diversity of a multicultural city like Berlin. We hear their voices and stories. Stories of arrival, of belonging. They tell of longing, of hopes, wishes and utopias. They are all people who came from somewhere else and settled in Berlin.
Where do you come from? why did you come here? Where do you feel at home? What boundaries did you have to overcome? What does home mean to you?
In the Berlin version, the fourth in a series exploring borders (after Grenz.land, Grenz.land – Extended and Grenz.land – Korea), we find ourselves in a city haunted by the past existence of a physical border, the Berlin Wall, but also in a place where multiculturalism prevails. All conversations here start with the question: Where are you from?

Based on their personal migration stories, the dancers deal with these questions of new beginnings, uprooting and adjustment processes. In solos, duos and trios – sometimes flowing, sometimes in choppy movements – the question of rapprochement, cultural misunderstandings and understanding is always at stake. How can we meet?
It is a dance of positioning, of changing directions and relationships to one another, accompanied by Albrecht Ziepert’s atmospheric electronic soundscape.
Grenz.land – Berlin addresses the human ability to transcend personal boundaries and external limitations and to find one’s own voice. At the same time, of course, we know that not everyone has the same access in our globalized world. Not all have a voice, a home to return to, a choice of where to live in the end.

Grenz.land – Berlin celebrates togetherness in all its diversity and would like to pause for a moment to hear about the past and the future beyond the noise of the metropolis. With the utopia in mind that we are able to coexist – with all the differences and similarities that make us who we are. At least in dance it seems to be possible.

(Carmen Mehnert)

Grenz.land – Berlin is an adaptation of the TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund projekt Grenz.land, produced in 2020 as part of Vorpommern tanzt an – movin‘bröllin. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Minister of State for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance.

Choreographie: Moonsuk Choi, Yamila Khodr
Dance: Sami Similae, Moonsuk Choi, Yamila Khodr
Visual Design: Erato Tzavara
Sound Design: Albrecht Ziepert
Technical Direction: Spyridon Paterakis
Production Manager: Nadine Becker
Participants: Zainab Farahmand, Hongwei Yuan, Erez Schmerler, Cynthia Seitz, Elena Lauraite, Arina Francke, Türkan Yildiz, Isul Kim, Kareem Ghoniem, Sonkeng Tagouffo, Francisco del Solar, Zain Alfil.
Produktion 12H Dance
Kooperationspartner GRÜNBERLIN – Tempelhofer Feld
Drone footage Erato Tzavara, Nizam Ergil