MichaelDouglas Kollektiv / Özlem Alkis / Jared Gradinger

We are expected to be identifiable, public and available. Yet at the same time, we want to disappear, disappear into the flora and fauna inhabiting the wild landscape of our material and immaterial identities, diving into collective consciousness. The boundaries between bodies and space, the individual and society, present and past dissolve. “Wir wollen verschwinden” aims to make a physical form of communication productive that relies on intense, intimate contact, on touch, connection, breathing and the mass of bodies. The performance experiments with perception and asks, among other things: What is showing, and what do we recognise as being true? Is it possible to see without ascribing meaning to the things we saw? What comes into view when the performers onstage become invisible? The spectators vanish into their own bodies, into the collective body. Vanish in order to reappear anew and differently. MichaelDouglas Kollektiv has been collaborating with choreographer Özlem Alkis and artist Jared Gradinger for their current production. Together with the collective Özlem Alkis further developed her work on camouflage techniques, while Jared Gradinger, as a pivotal part of the production process, hypnotised the performers.The Cologne-based MichaelDouglas Kollektiv, centred around Douglas Bateman, Susanne Grau, Michael Maurissens, Sabina Perry and Adam Ster, creates new production and presentation formats, alongside stage performances. Choreographer Özlem Alkis lives and works in Cologne, where she graduated with an M.A. in Dance Dissemination in the contemporary context. Performer, director and curator Jared Gradinger, living in Berlin, has lately attracted attention with his collaborations with Meg Stuart, Angela Schubot and Jeremy Wade.

Duration: unknown