LIQUID

Media Walk
Part 2 of the 4Life cycle: Earth, Water, Fire, Air.
🏆✨ Winner of the Kurt Hackenberg Prize for Political Theater 

Tickets: 18 / reduced 11 plus fees
Reservations at: info@wehr51.com, 0160 8020996.

💧 🌊 WEHR51 presents a performative media walk that combines exhibition elements, video/animations, compositions using water from the Rhine, scientific findings, and mythical and literary imagery, placing them within socio-political and provocative contexts. Guided by a narrator’s voice through headphones and a performer, the audience embarks on a journey from Ebertplatz to the Rhine, encountering the history of water, its memory, and its involuntary recollections.

The walk traces the significance of water along its winding paths—from the deep sea to the metropolis, from the cold poles to the Rhine as a major waterway, and from underground sewers to the ear canals. Listening to water, giving it a voice, and fighting for its rights is a central theme of the performance.

🔸 From the laudatory speech:
“Listening to water. The natural sciences have long since deciphered the molecular properties of water, and so it is only logical that the narrative voice heard through headphones is joined by a performer with a mobile laboratory to guide the audience on its journey toward the water as it flows toward the Rhine. She explains states of matter, describes how water came to Earth, and why humanity must absolutely change the way it manages its resources. ... In this way, the concept of artistic intervention in public space comes as close as is rarely seen to its goal of sparking new perspectives for social and political action. Listening to water: a political act entirely in the spirit of the Kurt Hackenberg Prize. With this award, the jury honors not only the artistic quality but also the wisdom and courage of WEHR51 in turning the city and its river into a stage for reflecting on new perspectives for the urgent political task of protecting and preserving natural resources.”
(2024 Dr. Sandra Nuy, jury member)

🔸 Credits:

Artistic Directors: Andrea Bleikamp, Jens Standke, Rosi Ulrich / Director: Andrea Bleikamp / Texts/Dramaturgy: Rosi Ulrich / Video: Jens Standke / Production Manager: Anke Schmitz / Cast: Asta Nechajute, Anna Möbus / Set Design: Claus Stump / Costumes: Paula Noller / Assistant Director: Gina Bensch / Lighting Design / Technical Support: Jan Kutscher, Kevin Defraey

A production by WEHR51 in cooperation with Freihandelszone Ensemblenetzwerk Köln