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CRUSH

  • Benjamin Burger, EXTRALEBEN
  • July 11th-12th-13th 2024
  • Park am Gleisdreieck

A performance for a human and a crashed car. Body and engine, skin and metal, oil and sweat, masculinity and trauma, potency and powerlessness collide.

 A dark blue car in an industrial hall. The car is surrounded by white smoke and is backlit by a window front. A person on the roof of the car jumps into the air. The face is unrecognisable. The person is wearing jeans, a red bomber jacket and boots. The arms are raised in the air. © Simon Bitterli

The car has become the place where stolen masculinity is restored. The patriarchy is under attack? All the more reason to press the accelerator. Fossil fuel combustion manifests virility.

Carolin Slickers

CRUSH is a performance for one person and a crashed car. The performance deals with petro- and hypermasculinity as an extreme manifestation of a patriarchal society driving the planet into the wall.

Based on his own socialisation as a man, Benjamin Burger developed an intimate autofictional text and choreography in co-direction with Dimitri Stapfer and Mona De Weerdt. The critical male first-person perspective is appropriated and interpreted in multiple layers by performer Marie Popall. The result is a physical, humorous and ambivalent performance in which masculine stereotypes and their breakpoints are examined. The character she plays lives out a fetish for crashed motor vehicles - sometimes tender, vulnerable, sometimes dominant. Human and engine, skin and metal, oil and sweat, masculinity and trauma, potency and powerlessness collide.

CRUSH was created as part of the artistic multi-year project "States of Exhaustion" (2021 - 2023). In it, the concept duo Benjamin Burger & Mona De Weerdt address the social, political, economic and ecological symptoms of exhaustion that are manifesting themselves around the world and are increasingly becoming apparent at the end of fossil capitalism. 

Supported by: Stadt Kultur Zürich, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Landis & Gyr Foundation.
The performances in Berlin are supported by: City of Zurich, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council and coproduced by TATWERK | Performative Forschung.
Special thanks: Kunst im Depot Winterthur, Gessnerallee Zürich, Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik Zürich.

Dates

June 11th- 12th - 13th 2024 
8:30 pm (Doors open: 8 pm)

Kreuzchenplatz at Park am Gleisdreieck
openstreetmap.de

In German spoken language. A written translation of the text in English will be provided if required.

Tickets: 10€ | 7€ reduced on rausgegangen.de

The route from U2 Gleisdreieck and U7 Möckernbrücke to the venue is signposted.

For the performance, we provide the audience with suitable headphones with the option of individual volume control. These can be obtained on site when the ticket is validated at no additional cost.

The event is suitable for wheelchair users. A disabled toilet can be used in the TorEins Café.

The audience can move freely around the car, but there are also some seating options. You are welcome to bring a picnic blanket!

Credits

Text, Co-Direction: Benjamin Burger
Co-Direction, Dramaturgy: Mona De Weerdt
Co-Direction: Dimitri Stapfer
Performance: Marie Popall
Sound Design: Ernesto Coba Antequera, Lara Wedekind
Production Management: Daniela Guse
Production: Extraleben
Co-production: Tanzfest Winterthur

Biography

Benjamin Burger is a performer, director and author as well as a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts. He is the founder of the production Extraleben. In his multi-year research project States of Exhaustion, he focuses on exhaustion as an individual, political and ecological condition and examines narrative forms, dramaturgies and physicalities of self-exhaustion.
benjaminburger.ch 

Mona De Weerdt is a theatre and dance scholar and dramaturge. She works as a project dramaturge at TanzPlan Ost as well as freelance with various artists and groups on the topics of class origin/classism, neurodiversity, identity, climate (catastrophe), exhaustion and ecology. Since 2022, she has been conceiving and realising various projects with Benjamin Burger on the topic of exhaustion/erosion. 

Marie Popall is an actress and performer. In her work, she explores the relationship between strength and tenderness and collaborates with artists from various disciplines. She can currently be seen with her production "Hundsköpfige" (Winkelmann/Popall) at the Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik Zurich, the Roxy Birsfelden and the Dampfzentrale Bern.
mariepopall.com