7 May 2019

Kathrin Röggla: Der Elefant im Raum

An Exhibition Project with Performances as Part of “Wo kommen wir hin”

Opening, 17 May 2019, 18 May – 2 June, with Schnappschuss, a performance by Eran Schaerf and Der Elefant aus dem Raum, a performance by Kathrin Röggla in conversation with guests: 21– 25 May, Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg

As of 18 May 2019, diverse spaces at the Akademie venue on Hanseatenweg are being transformed into a labyrinth under the sign of the elephant. Until 2 June they form part of a matrix of the unspeakable, of prevented conversation, of repressed conflict and misunderstanding. Kathrin Röggla developed the large-scale acoustic, visual and performative installation with Mark Lammert, Eran Schaerf and guests.
Taking inspiration from the English figure of speech “the elephant in the room”, these works focus on a proverbial breakdown in communication, where everyone present is awkwardly aware that something of urgent importance is simply not being addressed. The more the elephant appears, the more difficult it is to talk about its presence. The “animal” clearly emerges and nevertheless remains invisible.

Works of film by Alexander Kluge and Alvaro García de Zúñiga are presented in spaces designed by Mark Lammert, the only visual contributions in an otherwise purely vocal sound installation under the acoustic direction of Leopold von Verschuer. In this installation, voices of Akademie members Jens Harzer, Kathrin Röggla, Manos Tsangaris, Valery Tscheplanowa, Angela Winkler, Hanns Zischler and other guests permeate the stairwell, the reed garden, Hall 1, the corridor in front of the Studio for Electroacoustic Music and Studio (Atelier) 1.

During the exhibition, Eran Schaerf's performance Schnappschuss takes place daily at 5 pm. It concerns how society deals with narratives that undermine their constitutive storylines. According to an English saying, you see the elephant or have seen it, when you go to war or return from it. An experience that separates a war veteran from the society that sent him to war. In the guise of a guided tour through an invisible exhibition, Schaerf's performance tells us about this conflict.

To carry out a literary experiment, Kathrin Röggla invites viewers to a series of talks presented under the title Der Elefant aus dem Raum (Getting the Elephant Out of the Room) from 21–25 May at 6 pm. Röggla's guests come from varied fields of political, legal and dramatic professions. She will talk with them about their work experiences in an attempt to determine whether problems in communication crop up on a par with the proverbial “elephant in the room”, and then she'll process this material live. Röggla uses the special features of the Akademie building on Hanseatenweg ‒ a venue that is a place of production, performance and artists' residences combined into one ‒ to delineate such sites in her performance. In a series of talks meant to be experienced publicly, Röggla begins by holding a one-hour conversation with each respective visitor in the sound studio. At around 7 pm she moves to Hall 1, where she publicly transcribes the recorded conversation. And towards 8 pm the performance continues in the “Beckett Studio”, where Röggla extracts literary material from the transcript. During her performance, Mark Lammert will carry out his work as a copyist and transformer of texts.

Special Event Information
Kathrin Röggla: Der Elefant im Raum (The Elephant in the Room)
An exhibition project with a performance by and with Kathrin Röggla
17 May 2019, 7 pm, opening special event with Mark Lammert, Kathrin Röggla, Manos Tsangaris, et al., free admission
Exhibition: 18 May ‒ 2 June 2019, daily from 3–10 pm

Der Elefant aus dem Raum, performance: 21–25 May
Kathrin Röggla in conversation with guests; each day's performance starts at 6 pm
21 May: Heike Kleffner, journalist, chief executive officer of the Association of Counseling Centres for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Anti-Semitic Violence in Germany (VBRG)
22 May: Arabelle Bernecker-Thiel, political scientist, consultant for migration management
23 May: Ulf Bünermann, sociologist and coordinator in the Berlin State Office for Equal Treatment and against Discrimination (LADS)
24 May: Frank Raddatz, publicist and dramaturge
25 May: Patrick Kroker, lawyer, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)

Schnappschuss, a performance by Eran Schaerf
18 May–2 June, daily at 5 pm – run-time is approx. 30 minutes
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin

Companion Publication to the Exhibition Project:
Elefant im Raum. Four newspapers by Mark Lammert, Kathrin Röggla and
Eran Schaerf. With contributions by A. L. Kennedy, Alexander Kluge, Karin Krauthausen, Manos Tsangaris, Johannes Ullmaier, et al.
ISBN 978-3-88331-236-1. Free of charge

Further information about the complete programme: www.wokommenwirhin.de
>> Press Tickets: presse@adk.de, Tel. +49 (0)30 20057-1514