Independence in Space & Virtual Reality

Installation in the Aquarium, the window front of the seminar room of the Edith-Russ-Haus

From 14 May to 14 June, the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art is going to exhibit the installation Independence in Space & Virtual Reality by the Costa Compagnie

The installation is visible from sunset to midnight in the Aquarium, the window front of the exhibition house's seminar room. The video and VR installation of the Costa Compagnie (Hamburg /Berlin) takes up the choreographic installation Independence in Space, which took place in January 2020 in the Edith-Russ-Haus, and interweaves it with the research material for their film Fight (for) Independence. Through 360° films, viewers can travel to the various research locations with their own smartphones. The films are accessible via QR codes, which can be scanned by a monitor in the aquarium from 10 am to midnight.

Independence in Space & Virtual Reality was conceived as part of the flausen+BANDEN! festival, which was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and will now be screened as an installative work at the original date of the festival. The video installation, which documents the choreographic installation Independence in Space on film, takes the impossible attempt to think about freedom in a space further and transports it into the public space surrounding the Edith-Russ-Haus.

In the choreographic installation Independence in Space, the Costa Compagnie with the dancer and choreographer Jascha Viehstädt and the director and artist Felix Meyer-Christian, by the participation of the actresses Katharina Shakina and Helen Wendt, dealt with the physical and spatial dynamics of global independence movements. Also on the team was the Catalan dancer and performer Montserrat Gardó Castillo, who has been following the conflict over independence and identity in her birthplace for years. Body images along the lines of freedom from dissent, isolation, loss, departure, demarcation and solidarity were combined with a audio installation of noises, sounds and language fragments from research conducted by the Costa Compagnie in Great Britain, Bavaria, Catalonia and southern Sudan. In this performance, movement and sound condensed into a world of associations surrounding the audience.

The four-hour live installation took place in January 2020 in the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art.

A production of the COSTA COMPAGNIE in cooperation with the Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater as well as the Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst.

Curated by Edit Molnár & Marcel Schwierin.