Gessnerallee
Zürich

Since Elfriede Jelinek created the refugee drama «Die Schutzbefohlenen» (The Suppliants) in 2013, events have gone head over heel; more people are fleeing than ever before. Thousands of people and entire families are coming to Switzerland, not able to return to their homeland and staying here. With the project «Die Schutzbefohlenen» the refugee issue is given a public platform through various artistic approaches. For the first time, six theatres in Zurich have come together and worked on a text, questioned it, deconstructed it, implemented it.

One day, six locations: this project is a statement shared by the participating venues addressing a societal issue that will need continuous attention. Various artists are contributing: director Barbara Frey and drummer Fritz Hauser, author and director Ivna Zic and author Peter Waterhouse, Swedish artists Markus Öhrn and Pär Thörn, director Daniel Kuschewski as well as Tobias Bühlmann with the company asuperheroscape.

Gessnerallee will be presenting a stage work by Timo Krstin and Miriam Walther Kohn with K.U.R.S.K and a video project by Tim Zulauf.

→ 5pm start at Pfauen / Schauspielhaus Zurich.
For more information about itinerary and starting dates please see schutzbefohlene.ch

DeutschKURSK
What is a text and what can it be used for? In «DeutschKURSK», the artists Timo Krstin and Miriam Walther Kohn examine this question by reducing Jelinek’s «Die Schutzbefohlenen» to its radical use value, to teaching material in a German class. Together with the Autonome Schule Zürich the text was used during two months as a means to learn German. The improved version that came out of this experiment serves as the basis of this performance about language, speech and representation.

Wer befiehlt?
Following an invitation by the Gessnerallee, Tim Zulauf conceptualised the open call «Wer befiehlt?» (Who’s in command?) in October 2015: 18 companies, as their own collective jury, finally made a selection regarding the project submissions for the Jelinek piece. After all, the «Schutzbefohlene» also ask: Who speaks on behalf of whom? Who marginalises whom and why?

Next to «DeutschKURSK» Gessnerallee and Fabriktheater will also show a commented video documentary of the direct democracy and controversial jury discussion.
 

→ DeutschKURSK at the Gessnerallee: 18.15 / 19.30 / 20.45 / 22.00
After each session the video documentation of the jury discussion will be screened. Fabriktheater will show the video documentation at 21.45 and at 01.00 in the Clubraum as well.