Gefühle am Ende der Welt

Only repetition teases out the sense or non-sense of experiences. Only repetition reveals patterns and sharpens our perception of changes over time. At the same time, repetition is an inexorable manifestation of history and the catastrophes which humankind was not capable to avert. Often, repetition is the hardest ordeal, holding sway over our addictions, compulsions, obsessions and the perpetual return of our injuries. Repetition can either be the pandemonium of boredom, or the promise of a second chance. So how can we learn not to repeat our mistakes, if repetition constitutes the only way to learn something?  What kind of wisdom do asceticism, practice and intentional monotony hold in store for us to respond reasonably to our repeating the same things all over again? Which routines and habits do we really need to prevent us from going round in circles and help us to advance?

Joy Kristin Kalu works as a dramaturge, curator and author in theatre and its narratives. She holds a doctorate in theatre studies and currently teaches as a professor of theatre theory at the Berlin UDK. She was head dramaturge at Berlin’s Sophiensaele from 2018 to 2022 and has previously worked at numerous theatres and art institutions in Germany and the USA, including New York’s Wooster Group and Berlin’s Kunst-Werke, Thalia Theater Hamburg and the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. In 2013, she published her monograph Ästhetik der Wiederholung. Die US-amerikanische Neo-Avantgarde und ihre Performances (transcript). She is currently working on the book Das Subjekt der Enthüllung. Inszenierungen der Therapie in künstlerischer und psychologischer Praxis, which is expected to be published in 2025. Joy Kristin Kalu is the author of numerous articles and essays that have appeared in anthologies and magazines such as Texte zur Kunst, Theater heute and Paragrana. She is co-editor of the volumes Theater als Intervention. Politiken ästhetischer Praxis (Theater der Zeit 2015), Kunst und Alltag (De Gruyter 2017) and OPENINGS (Alexander Verlag 2021).

Ariel Efraim Ashbel (*1982, Tel Aviv) is a Berlin based performance maker. He makes aesthetic spectacles weaving together a wide array of historical, political, theoretical, and pop-cultural references. Through composing and sampling, he collaborates with his transdisciplinary, international team of friends to make compositions at the intersection of theater, visual art, dance, music, and theory. Since 2011, he’s based in Germany, where his work is presented in HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, FFT Düsseldorf, as well as the festivals Impulse (NRW), Spielart (Munich) steirischer herbst (Graz) donaufestival (Krems) and more. In 2013, his first German-produced piece All white people look the same to me premiered at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, followed by THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (2015) , DO THE RIGHT THING (2018), no apocalypse not now (2019), MOONSTRUCK (2021) and most recently THE NAMES (2023), alongside various discursive and performative formats that coincide with the Jewish calendar. Also in 2023, he is marking his company’s 10th anniversary by staging Fiddler! A musical at HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Since 2019 he’s been on tour as a light designer for the project Sénsa, a collaboration with artist Paul Maheke and musician Nkisi which premiered in performa NYC and was shown at the Venice biennale performance program. Further recent collaborators include Alona Rodeh, Ligia Lewis, Showcase Beat Le Mot, Constanza Macras, Apparatus, Wojtek Blecharz, Melanie-Jame Wolf and more. In 2022 Ashbel was a guest professorship for Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at the Brown University in Providence, USA, and is teaching regularly at the HfBK Dresden. Ashbel is a graduate of the School of Visual Theater, Jerusalem (2006) and holds a BA in History and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University (2010).