Bauprobe Beethoven

By Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel

The Beethovenhalle on the Rhine was one of the first representative buildings of the post-war period and a landmark of the young German Federal Republic. Modern and transparent in form, it was intended to express the new democratic spirit which the German Federal Republic was to stand for from then on.

Beethoven proved to be the ideal eponym in every respect. Not only because he was born in Bonn, but because his music stands for new beginnings and innovation, for the positive utopias of freedom, justice and international understanding. And so the hall became a home not only for music, but also for federal assemblies, party conferences, city festivals and even for the controversial exhibition "Crimes of the Wehrmacht".

The history of the hall is a story of rebirth, splendour and prosperity, but also of neglect, loss of significance and disputes. The hall is currently undergoing extensive renovations - and precisely in its current rawness as a construction site it has the potential to be a narrator.

In a theatrical walk-through of the construction site, Rimini Protokoll scratches the historic steel grating of the hall in an attempt to uncover its history. The focus is on questions concerning our handling of immaterial and material heritage: How do we transfer the past into the present? What do we celebrate on an anniversary? Bauprobe Beethoven places the commemoration of Beethoven in the larger context of remembering and preserving.

The current project involves people whose work and biography are closely connected to the Beethovenhalle. "BAUPROBE BEETHOVEN" thus brings the hall - prematurely - to life. Its skeleton becomes the haunted house of the German Federal Republic, a kind of "Palace of the Federal Republic" as a counterpart to the palace which had to make way for the rebuilding of the Berlin palace. And perhaps it even calls on Beethoven as an "eternal construction site": we will never be "finished" with his likeness.

Sa 12.09.2020  >> 11:00

Sa 12.09.2020  >> 15:00

So 13.09.2020  >> 11:00

So 13.09.2020  >> 15:00

 

Idea, Text, Direction: Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, Daniel Wetzel

With: Horst Arnold, Alexander Brühl, Constanze Falke, Ursula Kosser, Lydia Lohmeier, Jürgen Nimptsch, Irmgard Nordbrock, Udo Skomorowsky, Michael Tänzer

Composition: Ari Benjamin Meyers
Performed by: Asasello Quartett (Rostislav Kojevnikov – Violine, Barbara Streil – Violone, Justyna Śliwa – Viola, Teemu Myöhänen – Violoncello).

 

Sponsored by Kunststiftung NRW

A project within the context of BTHVN2020, funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis and the City of Bonn.