In the game of televised warfare, it is unclear who is allowed to say ‘we’ anymore. One toy land is turned into another toy land. Everything you see is true but none of it is real. Director Peter Lorenz and performer Jelena Bašić dismantle the global media-war-machinery in the text of Nobel-prize winner Elfriede Jelinek (translated by Lillian M. Banks) as accounts of the Iraq war collapse into personal memories of a child refugee during the Bosnian war. In piles of human detritus, memories and plastic toys, the distinction between appearances and reality is difficult which makes Jelinek's acute war criticism frighteningly up-to-date. With the help of live video, the performer reclaims her agency in the global cycles of destruction and reconstruction.
The frontline in the war of words between ‘us’ and ‘them’ starts to blur as accounts of Middle Eastern deserts and the siege of Sarajevo bleed into each other. The violent act of representation is played back to us on video and we find ourselves in the middle of this toy battle.
It all comes back round, especially the wars.
Performance rights with Rowohlt Theater Verlag, Hamburg.
