Concept: Veronika Bökelmann, Séverine Urwyler, Marco D. Vitanza
Performers: Séverine Urwyler, Marco Demian Vitanza, Veronika Bökelmann
Video/outside eye: Veronika Bökelmann
Space design: Séverine Urwyler
Dramaturgy: Veronika Bökelmann, Marco Demian Vitanza
Technician, Light design: Yasin Gültepe (Ondskapend teater)
BOOKING CONTACT. Marco Demian Vitanza. m.d.vitanza@gmail.com. tlf: +47 95268027
ABOUT THE PIECE:
(ENGLISH, Please see also Norwegian version below)
The documentary lecture performance VI BESKYTTER LANDET takes a look at mutual war memories. Created for touring in high schools it creates an intricate retrospect on the relationships between German soldiers and Norwegian women during the occupation. Formally it fluctuates between sober lecturing and poetical abstractions of intimacy: Historical objet trouvés, original soundclips, live-pro-jected images, archive texts and interviews meet with the performers’ body, reminding of the physical aspect in the German-Norwegian relationships. The different medias are sometimes unison, and sometimes disharmonious, but always with the purpose of transmitting history as something tactile. Something touchable. A lost object. A retrieved person. Somehow, this is also the history of history. Or perhaps a journey through the desolate landscape between humans and the very own history it has shaped.
(ENGLISH, Please see also Norwegian version below)
“Ja vi elsker dette landet”, "We love this country" sings the 90 year- old Rudolf Geiss with tears in his eyes about Norway. He was one of the German soldiers who had occupied Norway under the 2nd World War. And he fell in love with the country, as he says today.
The documentary lecture performance VI BESKYTTER LANDET takes a look at mutual war memories. Created for touring in high schools it creates an intricate retrospect on the relationships between German soldiers and Norwegian women during the occupation. Formally it fluctuates between sober lecturing and poetical abstractions of intimacy: Historical objet trouvés, original soundclips, live-pro-jected images, archive texts and interviews meet with the performers’ body, reminding of the physical aspect in the German-Norwegian relationships. The different medias are sometimes unison, and sometimes disharmonious, but always with the purpose of transmitting history as something tactile. Something touchable. A lost object. A retrieved person. Somehow, this is also the history of history. Or perhaps a journey through the desolate landscape between humans and the very own history it has shaped.
(NORSK.)
“Ja vi elsker dette landet...” synger 85 år gamle Rudolf Geiss, en av de tyske soldatene som okkuperte Norge under annen verdenskrig. Vi beskytter landet er en dokumentarisk lecture-performance som gir innblikk i forholdene mellom tyske soldater og norske kvinner under og etter okkupasjonstiden. Oppsetningen er i seg selv som en erindring, eller noe glemt, hvor det paradoksale og vrange ikke blir lagt til side. Oppsetningen beveger seg frem og tilbake mellom helt nøktern forelesningsform til en abstrahert og poetisk atmosfære av intimitet. Tilskueren konfronteres med et multimedialt uttrykk: Projiserte bilder og objekter, lydmateriale og fremført tekst bærer arkivenes støv med seg, mens performernes tilstedeværelse minner om det kroppslige elementet i de tysk-norske forholdene. Tidvis er de forskjellige mediene samstemte, og tidvis skaper de disharmoni, men formålet er hele tiden å formidle historie som noe taktilt. Noe man kan ta på. Et etterlatt objekt. Et gjenfunnet menneske. Dette er dermed også historien om historien, eller en reise inn i det øde landskapet mellom mennesket og den historien det har skapt.
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| "Intelligence test proves: All war brides were more or less mentally retarded," Newspaper Aftenposten, 1947 |
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Sunset drawn by soldier Rudolf during the occupation of Norway 1943  |
