la danse d‘amazon

a fulfillment circus

By Daniel Wetzel

Shopping malls and zones are changing, "stay in your cave, guys!", shout the advertisements of the last-mile courier services, and even supermarkets are perpetuating and speeding up their delivery services into the night and into the home. This play is not about lamenting the transformation, but dealing with its pace-setter, Amazon and those who make it grow that overpowering. Us.

The catalogue of goods on the marketplace Amazon comprises more than 355 million products - and many more are added every day - an endless dance of the production of

goods and desires around the globe, shipped through hundreds of "fulfilment centres". But how do they actually work and what does "fulfilment" consist of?

Rimini Protokoll invites us to the CABUWAZI circus in Marzahn and asks: What connects the daily training of the body on the high wire with the work of the index finger on the scanner and with the performance ranking at the end of the shift? Why do the tables dance in Karl Marx's Capital? Is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Amazon? Did the conquistadors really name the most water-rich river on earth "Without Nipple"? And Amazon named its online agency for "Human Intelligence Tasks" after the so-called "Mechanical Turk"?

Tickets at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz www.volksbuehne-berlin.de

With: Monsur Babalola (psychologist, associate at Amazon Fresh), Sebastian Herz (Zignify Global Product Sourcing), Jana Krekić (Funder and CEO YLT Translations), Laleshka Salas Salazar (performance artist), Basile Herrmann Philipe (performance artist), Daniel Wetzel, Gisela and Dietmar Winkler (Circus Archive Winkler).

And Zoï Wetzel as well as acrobats from the Cabuwazi Marzahn circus (Paul Schuster, Hannah Wagner, Mio Riechers, Milana Brehm, Anna Lindner)

On video: Thomas Kuczynski (Wirtschaftshistoriker, Statistiker) †, Infidelix (Rapper an der S/U Warschauer Straße, seit 9 Jahren Reisender und Motivationsredner), Fabio, Ray, Ilijas Mohammed, Legesse, Hedi, Alex, Wioleta, Paulina, Alex, Patrick (Ver.di Mitglieder und Amazon Mitarbeiter*innen)

Director / text / sounds: Daniel Wetzel

Dramaturgy: Aljoscha Begrich

Artistic collaboration text and direction / research: Linn Günther

Stage, Costume: Nicole Timm

Artistic collaboration conception phase: Jean Peters (Peng! Kollektiv)

Choreography: Venetsiana Kalampaliki 

Video design: Grit Schuster, Fine Freiberg

Lighting: David Scholz

Sound & Video Technology: Fine Freiberg

Technical Direction: David Scholz

Sound technic and sound design: Louis Rixner 

Artistic Collaboration direction: Luna Anogiáti

Artistic Collaboration stage: Albertine Mietusch

Video model: Gaurav Singh

Collaboration costume: Mats Binder, Jonas Roscher Casting and consulting Circus & Artistry: Josa Kölbel
Production Management: Chloé Ferro, Steven Sander
Press and Public Relations: Alexandra Lauck

Graphic Design: Valentin Wetzel

Camera demonstration: Clara Becking

Outside Eye: Matthias Lilienthal

Tickets: Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

In co-production with Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik.

In collaboration with Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

Co-funded by the European Union. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

With the kind support of the Schöpflin Stiftung.

la danse d‘amazon is part of ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) as "Berlin: Act II, Chapter VII".

ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) is an epic project from 2022-2024 across 18 cities in 16 countries, producing artistic responses in public spaces to social and cultural themes identified in the 18 episodes of James Joyce’s Ulysses. At the same time, a cycle of 18 public symposia will be held in each city to produce 309 questions (Ulysses, Ep. 17) towards creating a new arts and society manifesto for Europe. The project also has 30 artist residencies which will contribute to a new book, Europe-Ulysses, alongside 18 new writing commissions, one writer from each city.

For further information contact:

Claudia Woolgar: claudia.woolgar@bnwp.nl

Sean Doran: sdoranbrowne@gmail.com