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Fest of Fools

The Fest of Fools is a festival that highlights humor as a medium in choreography, cultural practice and social
dialogue. Held over three days, the festival brings together five choreographers who utilize humor as a liberating cultural technique to address and clarify its systemic relevance, particularly during times of crisis.

Through five performances and one workshop, “Humor as a choreographic, aesthetic and political tool in cultural praxis” , the festival investigates humor as both a cultural and social phenomenon. The works presented aim to examine humor’s essential aspects and its cathartic function, exploring its potential to create distance, provoke thoughts and break societal boundaries. The festival seeks to present a variety of artistic expressions, using humor as a tool for critique and a catalyst for transformation.

Wednesday, May 14

8:00 pm Gats Surprise / Scapes of Landscape by Lukáš Karásek (tYhle collective)

Gats Surprise is a short solo trip of an elusive creature named Gats, originating from the world of the performance Scapes of Landscape by tYhle. Gats surprise not only the audience but also themselves in what they turn out to be. They have a large family, but suffer from loneliness. They are interested in Tarkovsky and comic books. They look completely different on the inside than they do on the outside, but no one knows how.

8:30pm The Trinity by Raul Vargas Torres

A choreographic cleansing journey, where daily kids-toys, music and actions take a hyperreal shape under the dual horizon of love and death, violence and emancipation, childhood and adulthood, father and mother. Unveiling the paradoxical resistance and violence of accepting to perform a role, in an imposed narrative, in which one is a byproduct or consequence of it. A performance which does not pretend to answer any question. A performance that happens at the friction between: what we imagine is happening and what is actually happening.

9:30pm Post-performance discussion

Thursday, May 15

10am Workshop: “Humor as a cultural, aesthetic and political tool in times of crisis” as part of the IETM plenary meeting (off-site, Studio 0/1 Gottlieb-Dunkel-Straße 30/32, 12099 Berlin) – to attend, please register HERE

8pm DEVOURER by Alica Minar & col.

One body, a bunch of black balls, a clear task and countless greed. A dance performance inspired by the principles of the clown fi gure and black hole theory. DEVOURER exists only to have. In a determined eff ort to take everything for its own, it absorbs light, inhales space and materializes time. Its transformation manifests gradually. A body of greed caught in action. How can the „self“ be maximized? Singularity. It’s a hypothetical point. „I am a star, I shine like a supernova…or have I become a black hole?“

9pm Post-performance discussion

Friday, May 16

8pm DauerDeviation (work-in-progress) by Kysy Fischer

The main goal of this work in progress is to develop a choreographic strategy of deviation in which the norms of movement are provoked and expanded. Kysy creates a chain of associations between movements, sounds and images. Thoughts, words and sentences deviate, taking new paths and constructing new meanings.

8:30pm ~~ha ha ha~~ hi!by Felix Baumann | Von B bis Z

In ~~ha ha ha~~ hi!a mediocre comedian attempts to tell a joke with a life-changing impact. However, he lacks the words or the right microphone setting for a real breakthrough. As he grapples with his shortcomings, he embraces absurdity, employing every tool at his disposal to create moments of comic folly.
The solo performance ~~ha ha ha~~ hi! blends dance, circus, physical comedy and object manipulation, and celebrates the art of joking, cheerful silliness, raw humor and the beauty of happy futility. It invites the audience into a world where minimalism meets eccentricity and playfull foolishness becomes profound.

9:30pm Post-performance discussion

Bowie in Berlin

8ight more performances of our successful SHOW

The second part of our series CONVERSATIONS WITH A CULTURAL ICON comes back again.

In the summer of 1976, pop star David Bowie moves from Los Angeles to Berlin. Why Berlin? Was he attracted by the mixture of Weimar nostalgia, isolated Wall city and niche location for the new music that would later be called Krautrock? In fact, he created radically new music in Berlin in the following two years, recorded both an anthem and a legendary album with `Heroes´, made a curious Weimar-era film with Just a Gigolo, and then disappeared into the pop-synthetic eighties.

“The musical concept of Grosser’s evening works brilliantly …. Just as Bowie’s musical, cinematic and fashionable work has lived from permanent transition and diversity of influence – ready to jump between Krautrock and Expressionism – so is this performance associative and fluid.” Patrick Wildermann / Tagesspiegel

Great review in Tagesspiegel, read it HERE

In 1987, Bowie returned to Berlin to give a concert in front of the Reichstag, a stone´s throw away from the Wall. East Berliners who came to the Brandenburger Tor to listen started shouting “Bring down the Wall” – the first domino in a series of many that led to the fall of the Wall?

Intelligent Movement

This special three-day event brings together dance, theater, writing, hip-hop and calligraphy! Dancers are invited to sign up and show what they’ve got in allstyle battles while the audience takes in panel discussions, jam sessions, battles and showcases!

Special Guest: Mhanna Letters

Amigo, who has long been exploring the connection between movement and writing,
will lead the event. Together with his friend Tako Baba, he has gained valuable experience
at the Funkin’ Stylez Festival paving the way for hip-hop theater.

Exhibition: Following the event, Bouzuqee Studio will present a small exhibition on the topic of dance & writing.

FRIDAY – BATTLE CULTURE

Topic: Battle Culture – Creative Exchange and the Exploration of New Spaces for Dance

Battle Culture is an important part of hip-hop culture, focusing not on competition, but instead on creative exchange, repartee and the experiencing of special moments. The goal is to discover new spaces together and bring the creativity to a new level.

Schedule of Events:

Hosted by Iman (Walashe)

6pm – Presentation by Saman Hamdi: Hip-Hop’s Organic Educators

A look at the philosophy and educational approaches that distinguish hip-hop culture.

6pm-7pm – Registration of the Dancers

Dancers can sign up to take part in the allstyle battles.

7pm – Cypher Jam with Music

Dancers are invited to show what they’ve got in an open format. The focus here is placed on creativity and spontaneity. The goal is to develop new ideas and support exchange. Seven dancers will be selected by the jury.

Judges & Panelists: Pez, Kupra, Penny K, Chica – J

Featuring DJ Peeps

7:45 pm – Locking Showcase

Featuring Cris, Penny K, Laura, Dani, Kupra, Philipp, Eylo & Amigo

8pm – Panel Discussion: Battle Culture: Souldance & Locking

With Penny K, Kupra, Penny, Chica – J & Amigo

Host: İman

This panel discussion will explore Japanese dance culture and the significance of souldance as well as the influence of Campbell locking on souldance and the global hip-hop community.

8:30 pm – Battles: 7 to Smoke Allstyle

Music by DJ Peeps

9pm – JAM with DJ Peeps

An open dance session with music by our DJ, offering a free space for creative expression.

10pm – End

SATURDAY – PERFORMANCE DAY

Many creative dancers are active in the battle scene. The performance session gives these creative minds a platform on stage. The session is open to all dancers who want to try out choreographies or concepts in front of an audience. Improvisation is just as welcome as a finished concept.

Schedule of Events:

7pm – Short Pieces by Berlin Dancers

Different dancers from Berlin present short choreographies that bring their dance style and personal stories to the stage.

Six short performances from Berlin & feedback from the audience

Hosted by Iman (Walashe)

With visuals by Geso

8:30 pm – Digital Calligraffiti Performance with Harshini, Mhanna Letters, Parole & Amigo

The Digital Calligraffiti project is initiated by Susa Pop | Public Art Lab and curated in cooperation
with Don Karl | From Here to Fame Publishing with the artist Michael Ang.

9pm – Panel Discussion: The Future of Theater with Harshini, Moe & Amigo

10pm – End

SUNDAY – Exhibition At the Bouzuqee Studio – 2pm

MOVEMENT & LETTERS

Works on paper by:

MINA / STOHEAD / MOSA87 / MHANNA / 2501 / PARİS URTEIL

PAROLE / THEOS / ZASD / ZEPHA / VINCENT GRUNWALD / AMIGO

So Many Ideas

So Many Ideas is a performance that explores a moral crisis we cannot quite name: a silent, self-destructive malaise, an obscure calamity.

Set in a crumbling portside hotel room at the edge of their civilization, three women—one terminally ill—take refuge in their shared space. One plays the violin almost absentmindedly, another sings, while the other murmurs, dreams, pleads and remembers. Together, their words overlap, complete, and challenge one another like a Baroque cadenza—a reflection of culture, a nervous tic, an urgent search for meaning: how they got there; how we all got here.

Drawing inspiration from Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky, Wallace Shawn’s The Fever, and musically from Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, So Many Ideas confronts the present moment: in a world overflowing with brilliance, beauty, and invention—so many choices, so much creativity—why do we keep ending up in the same places, with so little to show for it?

85 minutes, sung and spoken in English, German and Italian, partially subtitled in German and English

Pop! Andy Warhol & The Velvet Underground

Part 3 of our series of “Conversations with a Cultural Icon”

With the band RED LARGO and a cast of five actors, Pop! Andy Warhol & The Velvet Underground, attempts to provide a performative answer to the question of how Pop became Culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Following Jaws and Bowie in Berlin, we play and dance and sing the pain away!

Five curators are planning an art exhibition: Andy Warhol’s Underground Years 1965 – 68. Tricky. What do they want to exhibit, what can they agree on? A Factory reenactment? Cover versions of Velvet Underground songs played live in the museum? Underground films in video format? One thing is sure – just like the Velvets, there will be much more discord than harmony.

Sixty years ago, pop artist Andy Warhol suddenly shapeshifted into a filmmaker. Flanked by his so-called “Superstars”, he shot flicks like Blow Job, Chelsea Girls and Lonesome Cowboys; crude, daring, offbeat black-and-white movies walking the fine line between pornography and arthouse film. Along with these “underground films”, he presented the ultra-wild and ultra-loud performance series Exploding Plastic Inevitable as well as produced the debut album of the rock band The Velvet Underground with the German singer Nico – the album cover featured the most iconic image of those few “underground years”, the yellow banana.

The art world responded with a collective shrug, but was more than happy to serve as a permanent guest at Warhol’s hustling, bustling factory where the art was made in the front, the shagging was taking place in the back and amphetamines were taken everywhere.

Hardly anyone wanted to see the films, the performance series earned scathing reviews and no one bought the album.

Six decades later, however, they have become cherished cultural icons like the works of Picasso, Wagner or Fellini, while the Factory is now deemed a central historical site for queer emancipation. How did that happen?

Pics: ETB (pic 1) / Stefania Migliorati (pics 2 + 3)

Anne Welenc and Michel Wagenschütz

the lab: artist and audience development

Are we the protagonists of our own lives or merely supporting characters in larger narratives? How do the stories we tell and the roles we embody shape our understanding of agency, power, and collaboration?

During a one-week LAB, Anne Welenc and Michel Wagenschütz will explore these questions both thematically and formally, presenting a double feature of new material. Revisiting their shared history of collaboration, they reimagine their artistic roles by guiding each other on stage and dissolving traditional hierarchies.

Anne centers her investigation of classical dramatic works on the significance of female supporting characters, focusing on the substance of the Minnas, Bertas and Gretchens, while Michel, inspired by his project He’s Got It, explores creation myths and genius narratives in musical theater, addressing professionalization, societal aspirations, and personal vulnerability.

They are accompanied by Anastasia Mandel, who adds another live dimension to the performance, responding to the dynamics on and off stage with sound, music and samples, weaving an auditory layer that interacts with the unfolding narrative.

Anne Welenc, a director and playwright rooted in critical feminist research, combines classical theater with elements of dance, pop and club culture. Her works, including QUEENS and Gargoyles, reimagine gender, power and social narratives, offering contemporary perspectives on historical and literary figures.

Michel Wagenschütz, a visual artist and filmmaker, studied contemporary art and photography at the Berlin University of the Arts and performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His practice navigates the intersections of image-making, space and performative strategies, addressing social realities and their contradictions.

Anastasia Mandel is an artist, biohacker, performer and musician based in Berlin.
She began producing music and together with Sergei Kasich, coined the genre Ambient Punk. Her influences draw from performance art, musique concrète and the fair use sampling and branding strategies employed by bands like Negativland.

A Guide To Self-Synthesis

With its new performance, Opera Lab Berlin takes inspiration from pioneers of electronic music such as Wendy Carlos, SOPHIE and Pauline Oliveros in their new performance. They celebrate overcoming mechanical-acoustic sound production and going beyond heteronormative boundaries.

Together with trans singer-songwriter Marlene Bellissimo, known from The Voice of Germany, Opera Lab Berlin explores the sonic potential of electronics for defining your own parameters in A Guide To Self-Synthesis. Its transformative, transgressive power and frequencies of (self-)expression become the focus of the performance, for which composer Evan Gardner creates a pluralistic combination of notated but non-restrictive sound fields. The US-American university professor and and activist Susan Stryker, one of the foremost scholars in the field of (trans)gender studies, will take the stage as a special guest with her own contribution to the production.

What possibilities does synthetic sound production offer? How do queer harmonies and trans oscillators sound? Following the principle of Mauricio Kagel’s instrumental theater, singing and dancing, music from synthesizers, motion-tracking technology, composition and choreography come together in A Guide to Self-Synthesis, a new utopian and emancipatory celebration of electronic music.

“[Opera Lab Berlin is] one of the most experimental and refreshing musical theater groups in the Berlin’s independent performing arts community” (Siegessäule),

MARLENE BELLISSIMO is a trans woman and musician. As a trans singer-songwriter often focusing on trans voices in her work, she is interested in how gender fluidity can be expressed through the voice. On TikTok, she celebrates the diversity of trans voices, performing one-woman-duets that showcase her vocal range. In 2023, she released an EP titled christmas with my dead self, and she is known on YouTube for her documentary Finding a Trans Voice, where she discusses the philosophical and practical journey of finding a new voice through her transition. In September 2024, Marlene Bellissimo appeared on The Voice of Germany, astonishing the judges with her vocal artistry.

The Opera Lab Berlin music theater ensemble is a hybrid collective that links all creative elements together. People from all artistic fields come together in Opera Lab: whether music, acting, composition, directing, instruments, choreography, stage and costume design, lighting, stagecraft or dramaturgy – equality is a core principle at Opera Lab Berlin. Since its founding in 2013, the collective has brought over 30 original productions to the stage, featuring compositions by more than 40 contemporary composers and directed by over 18 different directors. The core ensemble has grown to more than 30 members and they collaborate with over 100 artists and production staff.

Where Ye From?

By Growler

Meet Growler, the 82-year-old drum banging, shamanic vulva from the Liberties in Dublin.

Wise as witches with a tongue like a lash and a heart of gold, she will take you on an alchemical theatrical journey.

Using storytelling, song, spoken word and comedy, her mission is to give voice to the voiceless and to transmute the shite out of the female collective trauma.

The performance on November 9th will inaugurate Growler’s Sofa Sessions and feature visiting musician Damien Dempsey and Berlin-based Wallis Bird in a one-night-only event called Songs From the Holywell!

This promises to be a very special night of storytelling, song and conversation between kindred spirits.

“The beauty of Growler is in its roughness, its erratic meandering, its refusal to be one thing or another. It has a sacred chaos of its own, in which Mulrooney thrives.”
The List

Rhythm in Sediment

The very first performance of new work-in-progress by Anna Lublina, followed by a post-performance discussion.

This research seeks to access ancestral knowledge through synchronization: a process of syncing one’s body rhythms with the rhythms of other people, objects or environments. Emerging from archival research on different forms of shared Jewish-Muslim rhythm—Uzbeki Shashmaqam music, prayer, agricultural practices, etc.— we explore tap dance, extended vocal techniques and live mixing to embody specific rhythms and synchronize with the worlds they emerge from.

How do these rhythms from historical moments of Muslim-Jewish conviviality generate different physicalities, states, tensions or intelligences in our bodies? What can these convivial rhythms teach us in a time marked by separation and violence?

This research has been funded by the Ottilie Roederstein Stipendiem from the Hessian Ministry of Science, Research, Art and Culture, Frankfurt Kulturamt and Giessen Kulturamt.

Anna is a current LABA Berlin Fellow, participating in the 2024 Muslim—Jewish creative study and exchange program called “Mar’a’yeh: A Night’s Journey”. This event is part of a month-long (ending 8.12) exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, details of which can be found here. For other upcoming LABA Berlin events and more information, please visit www.laba.berlin and follow (@lababerlin) on Instagram.

Colonizing The Skies

The very first presentation of new work-in-progress by Noémi Ola Berkowitz, followed by a post-performance discussion.

The sky has long been a place of comfort, spirituality, looking upward, and fantasy. But the colonization that marks the rise of empires and nations on land now threatens our atmosphere. The unique combination of technology and ancient stories in the skies above prompted Noémi (who presented new work-in-progress in our 2017 Expo Festival) to gaze upward for this next theatrical project.

With Dena Abay, Djibril Sall and Pamela Moraga