Mats Staub (CH)
DEATH AND BIRTH IN MY LIFE
26 May - 11 June 2022
from Tuesday to Saturday h. 20.00
A ZONA K/Mittelfest2022 production
Mats Staub’s artistic projects take us on a journey to the four corners of the world, inviting us to take time to listen and watch. Without resorting to facile spectacle, Mats Staub has over the years developed an exceptionally coherent poetry that gives us portraits of intense humanity. With refined delicacy and meticulous formal rigour, his works explore our most intimate and personal dimension, confronting us with the multilayered complexity of our time.
Which deaths and which births have influenced and changed my life so far? Who have I welcomed, who have I lost and said farewell to – and what has happened to me in the process?
The latest long-term project by Mats Staub asks about existential experiences. It approaches universal themes through individual experiences and in relation to local contexts. In every place it is presented it brings people together to talk to each other about their experiences of death and birth.
Death and Birth in My Life by Mats Staub is being made for the first time in Italy with the co-production of ZONA K and Mittelfest. The Italian version began with research work in Milan and Lombardia, and at the same time in Friuli Venezia Giulia: through the involvement of associations, specific categories of workers, and through more or less close contacts, about 30 people of different ages were identified who were willing to tell their personal stories. The aim of the research was to identify five possible pairs of interviewees who could discuss these issues by exchanging experiences, memories and considerations: people who did not know each other and who could meet for the first time on this occasion. This meeting gave rise to a free conversation, based on simple guidelines provided by the director: Gaia and Guido, Ambra and Fabrizio, Giovanna and Jana, Elisabetta and Elena, Massimo and Diego talked for a couple of hours, filmed by a video camera but in a situation made intimate by the lights and the two chairs placed opposite each other.
An immersive experience in which you will have the impression of being with them: a small group of strangers who meet to listen to stories, in a suspended time where you can allow yourself to reflect on death and birth.
From 23 to 31 July 2022, the video installation will be presented at Mittelfest2022.
info video installation for 20 viewers
Sunday and Monday off ● in Italian and original language with subtitles ● duration 120 min. with a break
c/o ZONA K – entry with 2022 membership
Idea, Concept, Direction: Mats Staub; With Sharon & Hlengiwe, Ahmed & Basso, Erika & Charlotte, Avril & Eric, Giovanna & Jana, Fabrizio & Ambra, Elena & Elisabetta, Massimo & Diego; Camera: Benno Seidel, Matthias Stickel; Scenography: Monika Schori; Dramaturgical Associate: Simone von Büren, Elisabeth Schack; Collaboration Milan: Cinzia Schincariol; Research: Tim Harrison (Manchester), Maia Marie (Magaliesburg), Patrick Mudekereza (Lubumbashi), Dada Kahindo (Kinshasa), Marcus Rehberger (Basel), Nele Beinborn (Frankfurt), Wolfram Sander (Hannover), Leo Saftic (Perg), Celya Larré (Paris), Justin Murphy (Dublin), Federica Di Rosa (Milan); Technical Direction: Hanno Sons, Stefan Göbel; Postproduction: Benno Seidel; Translation, Subtitles: Simona Weber, Cinzia Schincariol, Matthias Stickel, Benno Seidel; Interpreter for Milan: Laura Canonica; Production Management: Barbara Simsa, Elisabeth Schack; Production: zwischen_produktionen; Co-production: Kaserne Basel, SICK! Festival Manchester, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Festival Theaterformen Hannover, Festival der Regionen, Spielart Festival Munich, Centre culturel suisse Paris, Migros-Kulturprozent, Dublin Theatre Festival, zona_k Milan, Mittelfest2022; Funding: Fachausschuss Tanz und Theater BS/BL, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, Christoph Merian Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo
Azione performativa inserita in “IntercettAzioni” – Centro di Residenza Artistica della Lombardia: un progetto di Circuito CLAPS e ZONA K, Industria Scenica, Milano Musica, Teatro delle Moire, con il contributo di Regione Lombardia, MiBACT e Fondazione Cariplo.
Mats Staub (1972) was born and educated in Switzerland but now lives and works in Berlin. He studied theatre, journalism and religious studies in Bern, Fribourg and Berlin. He worked as a journalist for various publications (1996-2001) and as a dramaturgical consultant at the Neumarkt Theater in Zurich (2002-2004). Since 2004 he has been developing his own artistic projects that combine the codes of theatre and art, literature and science. The ever-expanding audio installation My Grandparents | Memory Bureau (2008) was presented among others at the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna (2009) and the Historisches Museum in Frankfurt (2012). The video installation 21 – Memories of Growing Up also grows as it travels from city to city and is continuously presented in new forms, for example at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt (2012), the Museum of Communication in Bern (2013), the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna (2015), the Adelaide Festival (2018) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2019). In 2020 he is honoured with the Swiss Theatre Award.
photo ©Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie