Rimini Protokoll brings Reality Trend to Lagos

By TERH AGBEDEH

18.01.2012 / http://nationalmirroronline.net/arts_culture/arts_culture_news/29283.html

The trio of Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel were at Terra Kulture in Lagos on January 8 to talk about their work. Kaegi said at the event, where the audience saw clips from their interesting projects including Call Cutta in a box, that they were also in the country to research for their next project.

Call Cutta in a box, which won a Honorary Mention by the Prix Ars Electronica 09 (International Competition for Cyber Arts) in the category Interactive Art, is basically an intercontinental phone play.

Haug, Kaegi and Wetzel are visiting Nigeria as guests of The Goethe-Institut, Lagos. The three, who have won several awards including the Silver Lion of the 41st Biennale of Venice in 2011, were evidently excited to show and talk about what they do. After Call Cutta in a box, the audience also got to see 100 Percent Karlsruhe in which for statistical purposes, 100 people are converted into pie wedges, bars and curves used in their turn for political arguments and economic cost-benefit strategies.

This project takes place on a revolving stage, runs for 70 minutes and had a big audience that paid to see the performance. When asked a certain question, a percentage of people move from the majority to a section of the stage representing the sentiment of the entire city. Haug, Kaegi and Wetzel studied at the Institut fur Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft in Giessen and work together (in various combinations) under the name of Rimini Protokoll.

Since 2004, they have been artists in residence at Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) Berlin, Germany. On how they were able to direct Call Cutta in a box that has participants communicating via internet and webcam from different locations in the world, Haug, speaking for the three who get public funds for their projects, said they developed the script together with the participants who, in all of their projects, are not normally professional actors.

But have people been able to see Call Cutta in a box since theatre has to do with a performances and an audience? To that Kaegi said some thousands of people have seen it  one by one, there has never been a collective viewing though. He said it was nevertheless theatre since it has something to do with a performance and an audience.