The Factory initiates production. The factory hall and the theatre were and are occupied in a temporary take-over. The assembly line is moving along, the product still uncertain. The production process is creative. A general assembly is announced. The conditions of production are based on solidarity. A trade union is being established. The production site is the factory.
Rehearsals are acts of continuous approximation and as such cannot fail. The roles are assigned, the means of production only borrowed. The strike is already organized.
Swoosh Lieu greet all consumers! Audiences from all countries unite!
Swoosh Lieu invite you to a “test occupation” as a site-specific examination of the factory and the theatre as a former site of industrial work, as well as the current production site of culture. Space is occupied, the audience moved with and through the media of theatre, resulting not only in the creation of a new stage, but also of a theatrical space of experience and memory, which in itself communicates political content via its means, mechanisms and structures.
But the most beautiful surprise from Hamburg was the daring arrangement of the women's collective Swoosh Lieu. "The Factory – eine Besetzungsprobe" takes the idea that art still wants something beyond its sheer obsession with itself very seriously. For three quarters of an hour, the quartet chases its audience through an agitprop seminar disguised as an industrial installation. Headlamps and floor lamps, circular saws, cordless screwdrivers and a lifting platform transform the room into a present day protest laboratory, haunted by the terror of economics. Nowhere else did this platform experience as much understanding of reality, as much political furor.
Project Details
Credits
- Johanna Castellconcept, stage
- Katharina Pelosiconcept, sound, performance
- Rosa Werneckeconcept, light, performance
- Juliane Krembergconcept, video, performance
- Meike Weigelintern
- Camilla Vetterstechnical assistant Hamburg
Co-Producers
A Swoosh Lieu production. Funded by Implantieren auf Naxos (ID_Frankfurt e.V./Theater Willy Praml), the Cultural Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main and the maecenia – Foundation for Women in Arts and Academia.
Supported by the LAB Frankfurt, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and The Forsythe Company.
Project History
The FactoryPerformance
- Première
The FactoryPerformance
- Première