Things On a Table (2016) begins with a table in the dark. On this table - a metaphorical tabula rasa - ordinary everyday objects, paper, milk, ink, an apple, a glass of water are manipulated into a series of assemblages, coaxed into compositional exactness, illuminated and framed by a camera connected to a projector. Nothing is hidden from our eyes, in fact the projection magnifies every detail of the manufacturing process. And yet surprising, profound and dreamlike tableaus emerge, reminiscent of vanitas still lifes from the 17th century and scientific demonstrations from the 18th century.

The performance's lyrics are taken from Gertrude Stein's 1922 play Objects Lie On a Table, in which her limited vocabulary is chopped up and rearranged into a composition of rhythmic elements. Language is freed from its usual task of representation and used as material to play and shape. The piece is the meeting of disciplines with which the interdisciplinary artists are deeply connected. Performance and photography are not only used here as techniques, rather the gesture repertoire of photographic image production gains choreographic significance. Choreographies arise from the montage of objects observed by the camera, but also from the movements of the people who create these montages, arranging object, light, camera - as alchemists who extract the magical from everyday material.

CONCEPT, PERFORMANCE Uta Eisenreich, Eva Meyer-Keller

VOICE, SOUND Katrin Hahner

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Björn Stegmann

CLOTHES : Elisa van Joolen

PRODUCTION: Alexandra Wellensiek

CO-PRODUCTION : PACT Zollverein (Essen), Internationales Figurentheater-Festival (Erlangen), MDT (Stockholm), EdB Projects (Amsterdam), Mondriaan Fonds (NL) supported by NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) Koproduktionsförderung Tanz aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien aufgrund eines Beschlusses des Deutschen Bundestag

showings :

Sohpiensäle Berlin

Het Veem Amsterdam

Modern Dans Teater Stockholm

Schwankhalle Bremen

Pact Zollverein Essen