Despre Rimini Protokoll și noile paradigme ale spectatorului-observator, co creator și co-performer

English translation:

About Rimini Protokoll and the new paradigms of the spectator-observer, co-creator and co-performer

 

In classical terms and reduced to its essence, theater is the encounter between the actor's corporeality and the spectator's gaze, this indirect contact having the capacity to generate catharsis. But in a society in which the importance and need for the active involvement of each individual in the process of (re)shaping and (re)defining society are becoming ever more pressing, the question naturally arises: to what extent is the spectator's status as a "theater-viewer", although functional, still truly relevant and sustainable when we talk about the performing arts as a reflection of the world and times we live in? Hence, the intrinsic need for a paradigm shift in the status of the spectator, which is particularly felt in the experimental forms of contemporary theater. In this process of search and redefinition, the very term 'spectator' is no longer entirely accurate or all-encompassing, as it is reduced to the activity of witnessing or watching. Depending on the various forms of artistic manifestation, including performative installations or smartphone apps, we may rather use terms such as participants or users, observers and equally objects of observation, going as far as the idea of co-creators and co-performers.

 

In an interview about the installation "win > < win", the founders and members of the German collective Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, Daniel Wetzel) explained that many of their projects invite primarily to observe: "In our collective we share the pure obsession to observe. Look out the window, go to a public space, attend a shareholders' meeting, a conference, a funeral, go to the courthouse and observe what's going on there, how people interact? What are the rules and rituals?". In a game of shifting perspective, the act of looking becomes a process of observation, often bidirectional. The "win > < win" installation, for example, starts from the premise that jellyfish have been floating around the oceans for hundreds of millions of years and almost everything that harms our ecosystem seems to benefit them, so scientists have come up with the apocalyptic prognosis that jellyfish will be the only survivors when everything else is destroyed. In collaboration with marine biologists and other experts, the Rimini Protokoll collective has shifted the perspective on these creatures by turning the spotters' gaze on them. So, up to nine people enter the installation at once, are given headphones and the first thing they see is their own image in the mirror, accompanied by the voices of experts and a narrator who guides them. At one point the lighting changes so that visitors can look through the mirror into a jellyfish aquarium. Then, through another change of lights, they can see through the aquarium and observe another group of visitors, in a second room, looking at them.

The invitation to observe can be seen in case Rimini Protokoll as a first step in a process of co-creation. When the spectator/ participant/ visitor/ user accepts the challenge to observe, he/she is often invited to join the artistic endeavor as a co-creator and/or co-perfomer. One such example is Utopolis, a performance that takes place in different locations in a city and invites not to a critical observation but rather to the creation of a space of possibilities. Participants can send messages and suggestions from the road to a central server, which are then shared and viewed anonymously.

 

In The Walks, a smartphone app (also available in Romanian), users are invited to rediscover ten generic spaces in a city from different perspectives. Audio-guided, they are challenged to make a re-enactment in a roundabout, to dance in a supermarket under the audio guidance of a choreographer, to stop at a street corner and imagine what they see as a theater stage, and build up a performance with the "characters" and "scenery" present in the space.

 

In case of the Conference of the Absent/ Konferenz der Abwesenden, the stories of the 'everyday experts' are brought to the stage by the spectators themselves, who become the performers. In the absence of the people whose stories are in the spotlight, they are materialized through the voice and the physical stage presence of some of the spectators. The rest of the audience thus observes people from their own city assuming the identity of a speaker - sometimes from another part of the world - absent from the conference.

 

In an extremely subtle yet significant way, this paradigm shift also manifests itself in Stefan Kaegi/Rimini Protokoll's Société Anonyme, a production that premiered in November 2023 in Hamburg and was presented in June 2024 in Berlin as part of the Deutsches Theater's festival of contemporary drama - DT ATT - in Berlin.

The performance takes place in the dark. The spotlights gradually dim, and the darkness offers the stories and storytellers the protection of anonymity. Space is no longer perceived visually, but acoustically: through sophisticated audio technologies and impeccable sound dramaturgy, invisible voices are heard from one corner or another, without being able to accurately perceive whether they are present in the space or not. The only live performer is Gül Prodat, a musician who was born without sight and who becomes a guide and companion on this journey in which you walk without a cell phone. The light-up devices are left in the wardrobe. In their place, each spectator is given a stick which - in an emergency - becomes phosphorescent and can be spotted by Gül.

 

Although almost overwhelming at first, there is nothing threatening about the darkness. On the contrary, it becomes a safe space where confessions can be made without fear of social stigma, shame, fear or other repercussions. Members of the "anonymous society" including a lawyer suffering from schizophrenia, a Moroccan laborer working clandestinely in the port of Hamburg, a civil servant who suffered multiple childhood abuses, including sexual abuse, a musician who discovered his sexuality in dark rooms, a priest who sometimes confronts confessions from criminals, a communist activist, a tax consultant, a sperm bank employee or a real estate agent who is a Scientologist.

 

The darkness is not just a safe space for storytellers and their stories. After a short period of acclimatization, it also becomes a safe space for the audience. Encouraged by the anonymous voices, they have the freedom to let their imagination and inhibitions run free, because in the power of the dark, no one can see you and no one can judge you. The chair and the space around become an 'invisible' stage for those who are willing to accept the challenge.

The longing for what 'home' means is manifested, for example, in the case of the clandestine worker by inviting the spectators to discover a Moroccan dessert in a pocket under the chair.  Once opened and eaten, thanks to the traditional spices, the dessert becomes perceptible on an olfactory level and thus defines the concrete space of nostalgia.

The musician who talks about his experience in the dark rooms suggests that the spectators take off their shoes, take off other items of clothing if they wish, and then put their clothes back on.

A bowl of Haribo, passed from hand to hand, from which everyone is urged to take as many teddy bears as they see fit, becomes a metaphor for the way in which society works.

 

With each concrete action, that the viewer chooses to take, the space becomes more familiar and the darkness triggers new perspectives on reality. As the Scientologist storyteller begins to flip through a family photo album, for example, the viewer becomes a co-creator of content, through the accurate way in which each image is visually materialized, at the level of the imagination, triggered only by description and the smell of perfume. This invitation and action of co-creating and/or co-performing intrinsically implies an analysis from multiple perspectives and a way of approaching one subject or another, one reality or another, which is the essential step in any authentic process of deconstructing prejudices.