Fast Forward 2024

An art work to kick-off and then a talk with a small group of guests, that’s the format of this year’s discussions at Fast Forward. The question of how and why artists deal with socially relevant topics and what ‘added value’ this brings precisely to art sometimes takes a bit of getting used to in a tradition that likes to differentiate between popular entertainment and serious art. On the other hand, from the cave paintings of our forefathers up until today, thinking about the kinds of stuff we do on this planet might not be such a bad practice after all. Three artists and their discussion partners are looking forward to battling it out in conversation for you. If you’d like to take part in the discussion, simply type your questions or comments into the festival chat and we’ll feed them into the discussion as much as possible.

12. November 2021 / 11:00 SOCIETY ON STAGE: MARATONA DE MANIFESTOS / MARATHON OF MANIFESTOS / MARATHON DER MANIFESTE / Portugal
13. November 2021 / 11:00  HISTORY ON STAGE: FALLSUCHT / Deutschland (Germany)
14. November 2021 / 11:00 IDENTITY ON STAGE: WEISSABGLEICH / Deutschland (Germany)

SOCIETY ON STAGE: MARASound DesignA DE MANIFESTOS / by Isabel Costa
WITH: Isabel Costa / Florian Borchmeyer / Ewan McLaren

Since 2017, the Portuguese actress and theatre-maker Isabel Costa, born in 1992, has been working in various constellations and for various places on a MARATHON OF MANIFESTOS. Inspired by the project of the same name by Hans Ulrich Obrist with international artists for the Serpentine Gallery in London 2008, Costa has actors recite manifestos that were written after the year 2000 in various places. The audience is given a map of the city and can then go to whichever places and texts they like. In the production Costa and her ensemble work against the classical notion of political rhetoric. She wants the performance to convey words of consciousness, messages of hope and/or complaint, worldly, present. At the FITEI festival in Porto, Portugal in May 2021, Costa showed a film version of this piece along with the performances. She will present the project online with that film, followed by a discussion with the dramaturge, curator, filmmaker and literary critic Florian Borchmeyer an one guest, whom we will sonn announce here.

HISTORY ON STAGE: FALLSUCHT / by schaefer||scherpinski
WITH: schaefer||scherpinski / Fides Raffel / Meret Kündig / Anna Siemens

In the autobiographical performance FALLSUCHT, Lara Scherpinski tells the story of an illness that is surrounded by an aura of mystery: epilepsy. Holy, prophetic, sinful, unruly, possessed by demons. The absolute loss of control in thinking, feeling and experiencing. A primal human fear, materialised by an illness. In FALLSUCHT, Lara Scherpinski investigates her body also as an archive of familial and cultural history, as a receptacle of myths and social debates about normality and being different. The production was created in cooperation with the Cammerspiele Leipzig and the Academy for the Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Arts Foundation, StiftungErlebnisKunst, the Culture Office of the City of Leipzig and the LEIPZIGSTIFTUNG for the stage and was subsequently also adapted to film. The directing team Lara Scherpinski, *1990 and Annika Schäfer, *1991 and dramaturge Meret Kündig, *1987 will talk about this piece with social scientist and consultant for inclusion and disability management Fides Raffel as well as Anna Siemens, doctor and medical historian.

IDENTITY ON STAGE: WEISSABGLEICH / by Julian Mahid Carly
WITH: Julian Mahid Carly / Theresa Thomasberger / Hasnain Kazim / Charlotte Orti von Havranek

Julian Mahid Carly completed his degree in theatre directing at the Academy for Performing Arts in Ludwigsburg in the summer of 2021. Carly was born in 1997 in Kassel, has a B.A. in Literature and History, and writes plays and radio plays. His work always circles around telling stories from marginalised perspectives and within queer and postcolonial narratives. In 2019, he shot a short film, which he directed and starred in and was an experiment in extreme conformism: being German, being beautiful, whitening creams. Carly confronts other people with his wish to become white: his mother is shocked. An extreme right-wing activist talks a lot, but doesn’t say much. A plastic surgeon explains the options for laser treatment. But where does the desire to conform come from and where does it lead? Julian Mahid Carly opens up a complex topic with his short film in an unusual way. He uses the medium of art to both humorously and provocatively draw attention to certain problems, which require more than just simple patterns of thinking to understand. Carly will discuss his motivation to make this fail and the issues it raises with two guests, who we will provide more information on very soon.

MARASound DesignA DE MANIFESTOS / Marathon der Manifeste
Concept & Text: Isabel Costa
Production: Os Possessos
With Catarina Rôlo Salgueiro, Dori Nigro, Filipa Matta, João Pedro Mamede, Leonor Buescu, Mia Tomé, Odete

FALLSUCHT
Concept schaefer||scherpinski
Performance Lara Scherpinski Direction: Annika Schäfer
Dramaturgy Meret Kündig
Suppliance Tom Schellmann / Music Chiara Strickland / Assistant Paula Korneck / Camera Konstantin Pape / Sound Design Frank Schubert / Assistant Sound Design Marc Eberhardt / Assembly Pablo Ben-Yakov / Recording Management Joseph Cyril Stoisits

WEISSABGLEICH
Direction & Production Julian Mahid Carly
Image Markus Ott / Sound Design & Remix Jonas Kröhnert / Music Dominik Matzka / Editing Maxie Borchert