SHARDS OF NORMALITY

Performative installation with the International Laboratory Ensemble. What does it feel like when war becomes normal? A performative installation - based on research among Ukrainian and Western European artists, combining elements of installation (audio and film) with live performance.

The war against Ukraine has been going on for three years. The world public is beginning to come to terms with the situation. How does it feel when war becomes "normal"? The initial outcry fades, the outrage flattens out, the war becomes increasingly distant and is repeatedly forgotten - or becomes election campaign material for populists who want to see an end to any solidarity with the attacked country. The people in the country themselves do not have the privilege of forgetting the war - but for them, too, the exceptional state is becoming the normal state, with corresponding strategies for dealing with it.

"Shards of Normality" is based on research among Ukrainian and Western European artists that director Yuri Birte Anderson has been conducting since 2022/23 - an archive into which the different voices and perspectives on the normalization of the war are incorporated. The "International Laboratory Ensemble" is developing a performative installation on the topic with live and digital elements that links different levels and combines audio and film recordings, objects, written word and live performance.

Languages: German, English, Ukrainian, Russian - with surtitles
Playing time: approx. 60 minutes

The "International Laboratory Ensemble" (ILE) is a network of international actors and performers, founded in 2016/17 by Yuri B. Anderson with the aim of continuing the traditions of experimental laboratory theater in the 21st century. The ILE sees itself as a transnational collaborative ensemble. With members from Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Scotland, the group is very diverse and heterogeneous, both in terms of their artistic backgrounds and their origin, gender, identity and age.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW, the Diversity Fund NRW, the NRW State Office for Independent Performing Arts and the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne