Black Land
2022“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? Dismember Remember.
The project BLACK LAND is an interdisciplinary performance series and installation created in cooperation with the ERC project ELEPHANTINE of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, the National Museums in Berlin (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Verena Lepper and CTM Festival.
With: Attila Csihar, Charles Hedger, Anabelle Iratni; Lea Draeger, Kenda Hmeidan, Vera Maria Kremers and others
As well as contributions by Yara Mekawei and Zorka Wollny, curated by Oliver Baurhenn / CTM Festival
Concept and artistic direction: Elena Sinanina, Scenography: Inga Aleknavicuite, Costumes: Karin Merten (Bühnenservice Berlin) based on designs by Elena Sinanina, Composition BLACK LAND: Charles Hedger, Attila Csihar, Composition »Isolde’s Transfiguration« after Richard Wagner: Roman Lemberg, Dramaturgy: Rabelle Ramez Erian, Dramaturgy Outside View: Maria Buzhor, Curatorial Advisor: Verena Lepper, Consultation partners Egypt: Walaa El Shazly, Kerylos Aziz, Sound Design: Christopher von Nathusius, Project Management: Anne Diestelkamp, Organisation in Egypt: Ahmed Adel, Graphic Design: Ada Favaron