„Fürchtet Euch nicht: Vulva lebt!“ – ein Labor für Kunst und Spiritualität

⛪♀️🍑🌙 If you look at the history of women* in the church and the art world, the words “sacred” and “scared” suddenly seem almost indistinguishable. With the advent of patriarchy some 5,000 years ago, our relationship with feminine power went completely off the rails. Suddenly, the Great Goddess was transformed into an esoteric, hysterical witch with a warty nose and a broomstick. What happened? Who stepped on whose toes? And what artistic means can we use to find our way out of this?

To find out, the two artists Philine Velhagen and Felizitas Stilleke are launching a two-week lab during the Indian summer of 2026. Together with eight other “lab sisters” from the Cologne and Berlin performance scenes, they will venture into the balancing act between art and spirituality, faith and doubt, resistance and creativity. Together, they seek rituals for transformation, crisis, letting go, and other moments they face in their artistic practice as well as in life. For one thing is as certain to them as the Amen in church: A resilient society needs rituals of cohesion that transcend denominational affiliations and moralizing sermons!

So they embark on a queer-feminist quest for new collective practices. And what better place for such a quest than the deconsecrated church of the Dominican monastery in the heart of the city? The lab invites you to join in the experimentation over four days. Those interested, seekers, and friends can build on what’s been discovered, try things out, and serve as a test community.

🌕 🌑 🌿 GIVE US BACK THE WHOLE MOON!

August 27, 2026, 9:00 p.m. – approx. 11:00 p.m. 

📢​ ♈️ FLINTA ONLY 🛐🚺📢​
Meeting point: Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)// Due to the current weather forecast, we’ll be inside the monastery 

The first event hosted by the Laborschwestern is something special: Inspired by August’s so-called “Störmond” (disturbing moon), they aim to reclaim public space as a venue for collective nature rituals. Full moon cycles have been celebrated and invoked since time immemorial. Mostly hidden away in the woods or elsewhere in seclusion. Not so our Laborschwestern: They don’t want to hide, but rather celebrate the full moon right in the middle of it all, in the Green Belt, all night long. And they’ll find rituals and tools to protect themselves and their experiments! Including the partial lunar eclipse at the crack of dawn. So: Don’t forget your sleeping bag, herbal blend, and pepper spray!

🕊️👼🧎‍♀️📿 TREIBHAUS with GERTRAUD KLEMM

August 31, 2026, 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

Since publishing her polemic *Farewell to the Phallocene*, the Viennese author Gertraud Klemm has made a name for herself as a feminist free thinker. Now she’s exploring how religious communities might function beyond patriarchal structures and, together with the Laborschwestern, is inventing forms, words, and gestures to fill in the missing rituals. Together, they’re creating a language for the void, for the supposedly greater whole, formerly known as God. Featuring a reading, discussion, and the first (rather than the last) Last Supper.

🧹🧙‍♀️🔥✨ THE DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHES 

Unfortunately, this event must be canceled for organizational reasons. Please feel free to join us for one of the other dates! 

September 4, 2026, 7:30–9:00 p.m. 
Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

The sisters are not alone in this Lab. There have been—and still are—many women artists, healers, fighters, and advocates of faith and art. Not all were heard. Not all survived. The Lab invites you to the Dominican Monastery for a ritual of remembrance, commemoration, and gratitude. After all, it was two Dominicans who, in the 15th century, wrote the so-called “Malleus Maleficarum,” the most influential and deadly handbook for justifying and carrying out the witch hunts. A performative séance for all the inspiring FLINTAS—in art and in the world!

🍹🎉🙏 CELEBRATION “It’s never done!”

September 6, 2026, 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

To mark the end of their time together, the Laborschwestern call for the harvest and generously share what they have. Hey, hitch up the wagon! Here come rituals for transition, dance and song flowing freely, queer-feminist creeds, altruistic cyclical art practices, children of their creation, Shadow Songs, and free Bloody Marys! The Lab, aka the Dominican Monastery, opens its doors and lets the art community get a taste. Amen!

By and with: Philine Velhagen & Felizitas Stilleke (Drama Köln) // Julia Dick & katharinajej (katze und krieg), Nadja Duesterberg & Svea Kirschmeier (TIGERS’ KITCHEN), Justine Hauer, Cordula Körber, Maren Schlüter, SE Struck (SEE!), and Béla Bisom, neurohr & andrä, among others.

Special thanks to Ralph Elster and the Friends of Theater der Keller.

A production by Drama Köln e.V.

Supported by: the City of Cologne’s Department of Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the NRW State Office for Independent Performing Arts.

As part of the “Laboratory: Fear Not: Vulva Lives!” series