Von denen die überleben / Of Those Who Will Survive

In the project «Von denen die überleben / Of those who will survive» the migros museum für gegenwartskunst is entering the space of the theatre for the first time, and thereby pursuing once again the strategy of crossing the boundaries between the arts. As a starting point on the one hand serves an interest in working together with three visual artists and three authors, respectively their texts, thus forming an entity within the theatre space, on the other the existential question of the (im)possible survival of the human. The Icelandic artist Gabríela Friđriksdóttir uses as a point of departure Jeremias Gotthelf’s novella Die «schwarze Spinne» (The Black Spider) (1842) newly interpreted with the dancer Erna Ómarsdóttir and accompanied by sound by the musician Jónas Sen. Through her text-space-installation Dutch artist Mathilde ter Heijne investigates the survival of a matrilinear social structure in South West China, that of Mosuo. Within this society marriage between man and woman is unknown. As a result this ethnic group has to struggle not only against traditional moral conceptions, but against the socialism of the People’s Republic of China, and also against today’s increasing sex tourism and all its side effects. This is met with scenes from a Swiss marriage, which the writer and journalist Erwin Koch has researched. The third duo, featuring the German writer Sibylle Berg and the Canadian artist Jon Pylypchuk, offer a darker future: a «victory of the animals». Are they suffering from depression these new masters of the world? Do they experience pain? Do they suffer? Do they have a father, and if so, are there family conflicts, or is the animal of the future simply material, with no burdensome and obsolete social attachments? The experience is accompanied by the singer and musician Sina.

Curated by Raphael Gygax