May 20–22, 2022
With contributions by Tim Etchells, Mette Ingvartsen, Ben J. Riepe, Folkwang University of the Arts x deufert&plischke, fieldworks, Pottporus e.V., P.A.R.T.S. x Philipp Gehmacher, John the Houseband, Tian Rotteveel & Claire Vivianne Sobottke, n7zza & trynity (fam_)
On occasion of its 20-year anniversary PACT Zollverein is hosting an extensive festival with indoor and outdoor performances, artistic interventions and concerts. The programme will take place at PACT and outdoors, exploring the postindustrial landscape surrounding PACT.
Installed on the exterior façade of PACT, Tim Etchells’ neon work Shifting Ground invites the viewer to consider both literal and metaphorical meanings of the simple phrase. Shifting Ground invokes past labour on the former mining site as well as historical and present conditions of uncertainty and dilemma. At the same time, it points to the flux of the present as a vital moment of possible opportunity—as the ground shifts there are chances to find expression and understanding, new balance, and meaningful place together.
Kicking off the anniversary festival, Mette Ingvartsen celebrates the unifying, resistant power of dance with her solo-performance The Dancing Public (May 20, 8pm). Evoking collective moments of dancing manias from the past, Ingvartsen explores movement ecstasy within a social gathering. The result is a dance feast, a concert of spoken poetry, a physical frenzy to the point of complete exhaustion. Ingvartsen's intense choreography is followed by the world premiere of The Patient (May 20 at 9:30pm and May 21 at 4pm) by Ben J. Riepe: created for an ensemble of nine performers, Riepe’s latest work evokes a literal sound body. The dancers occupy a field of tension between nature and culture, between guttural creatureliness and seemingly almost sacral iconographic moments, continuing Riepe’s performative search for a new stance of the “human creature” within nature.
Additionally, performative interventions and artistic works are staged in the postindustrial landscape around PACT: the installation fieldworker by Tian Rotteveel creates an immersive musical experience, while his performance breathtaking (May 21, 3:30pm and 8:30pm) evokes a concert in the imagination of the audience. Also, performer and choreographer Claire Vivianne Sobottke invites visitors to enter a space fueled by imagination: between branches and twigs, monstrous transformations and poetic soundscapes unfold, creating a space for human and non-human actors to gather. Interacting with the environment around PACT the collective fieldworks stages in gaps and patches (May 21 and 22, from 2:30pm), playfully reacting to the absence of the human body in industrial landscapes: how can the body occupy and reinterpret the postindustrial architecture? Together with the artist duo deufert&plischke, the dance students of the Folkwang University of the Arts developed the work anarchivTANZ (May 21, 2pm and 4:30pm): investigating the relationship between the body and clothing, the performance reflects upon the political dimension of fashion. The internationally renowned school for contemporary dance, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels regularly invites guest choreographers to develop works for and with its students: A Lot A Part A Body was created by Philipp Gehmacher and celebrates its German premiere at PACT. Questioning how physical and emotional spaces can be realized in the interplay of bodies in movement, it explores a poetic space of collectivity. Finally PACT opens the stage for Urban Dance in cooperation with Pottporus e.V. the International Birthday Battle (May 21, 5pm) invites 12 international dancers to compete.
More an art project than a band, John the Houseband was founded in 2008 by dancers and choreographers Alma Söderberg, Dennis Deter, Melkorka Sigridur Magnusdottir, Anja Müller, Hendrik Willekens and Roger Sala Reyner. For PACT’s anniversary they play a Wandering Birthday Concert (May 20–22)—a moving, three-day-concert full of musical surprises, improvisations, and explorations. Meanwhile, the dance floor will be occupied by n7zza and tryniti, cofounders of the queer-feminist DJ collective fam_ (May 21, 3:30pm and 9:30pm). The three-day festival ends with a closing concert by John the Houseband (May 22, 5pm) on the PACT terrace. The anniversary festival is the first part of the festivities, which will be followed by a second event in September.
PACT Zollverein
PACT Zollverein is an international venue for contemporary arts housed in the former colliery shower building at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein in Essen. PACT produces and co-produces new dance and performance works, regularly presents guest performances, runs an international residency programme as well as diverse exchange formats connecting regional and international artists and academics working in a wide array of disciplines. Since its foundation in 2002, PACT Zollverein has become a focal point for innovative developments in the fields of dance, performance, theatre, media and the visual arts at the interfaces between science, technology and society.
Press contact: Ann-Charlotte Günzel, ann-charlotte.guenzel [at] pact-zollverein.de
