Report of Transversal Berlin, the German section of the Cultural Route "Les Transversales". Speech of Mr Lambert Blum.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEMINAR ON CULTURAL ROUTES CHALLENGE OF CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Château de Bourglinster Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg 9-11 October 1996. 

First Session : The Challenges of European Citizenship

Transversal Berlin aims to explore the history of European theatre and its influence on the development of European culture. 

The prerequisites for such an understanding, however is a detailed analysis of theatre as a medium, that is to say as a mean of extension and transformation of human abilities. European theatre -which differs essentially from, say, oriental theatre- must presumably be considered a decidedly European cultural asset. To analyze the cultural functions of theatre and to describe its importance as a cultural heritage Transversal Berlin is based in his theoretical studies on a historic-critic approach. To understand theatre we have to understand the conditions and the utility of his invention. European theatre came into being in ancient Greece in the greater context in the introduction of the vocalic alphabet, which was followed by a fundamental change of mental strategies and patterns of perception. This fundamental change in the greek culture and society was the beginning of the occidental civilisation and its separation from cultures in the orient and other continents. The cultural changes which were provoked by the use of the Greek alphabet could mainly summarised in three aspects: 

1 The transformation of thinking into a from the body independent communication system,which led to an abstraction of sensuality. 

2. This abstraction promoted me invention of a logocentric way of thinking that consists of the construction of abstract concepts and ideas beyond their social context. 

3. By isolating man from the social context and by strengthening the visual perception the alphabet put man into the position of an external observer of social life. He became an individual, autonomous identity, separated from his social surroundings. 

Theatre served the cultural function of reorganising the senses, which had become confused by the use of writing, on the new technological level, and to adopt human perception and sensory activities by way the new mental strategies. Theatre, just like writing, promoted the dominant position of visual perception which, in contrast to auditive perception, intrinsically involves distance and segmentation. In a seated audience, it separated the mental activities from physical activities. Thus it became a productive factor in the constitution of the isolated western psyche, that demands a particular separation and cooperation of the sensory and cognitive activities. The invention of the printing-press during the Renaissance accelerated this process and entailed the pure rational conception by the dominance of central perspective and the use of geometry. 

Theatre and dance served to apply these abstract conceptions to the body and its movements in space, and to incorporate them for the audience.

The particular cultural impact and features of theatre could be summarised: 1. On stage, theatre constructs body images characteristic of a historical period which refer to the dominant mental strategies and the dominant pattern of perception. 2. Thus theatre transforms and coordinates sensory perception in accordance with the needs of society and technology of a historic period and contributes to the creation of images/ideas of the world till these images become themselves reality. 3. Western theatre has generated patterns and images of identity and conceptions of subjective individuality according to the dominant ideas in historical situations and conveyed them to the audience as ideal images. It is evident that the media as theatre do not only express a general social and psychophysical process of differentiation but, by being technological extension and perfection of human skills, they have always had a productive influence on the development of culture, of the human being and his conception of himself which has been underestimated to this day. Theatre serves to embody the dominant cognitive and perceptive strategies, and -by means of dramatic and dance techniques- to adapt the body to the cultural image of it. By this theatre is used to create and experience body images, roles, stories, scenographies, etc...which enable man to deal with the cultural changes surrounding him and to adapt his psychic structure and his activities to it. That is why theatre had a generative function on the process of western civilisation and was an essential mean of socialisation and of the adaptation of man's activities to new technologies. 

 This was to make clear why Les Transversales have put the body in the canter of their work. Like the garden which was invented to discipline nature so theatre has to be understood as medium to discipline the body, its physical, mental and psychic abilities. In the body of the human being nature and culture are merging inseparable. Body techniques and languages which are elaborated in dance or theatre are not mere inventions of genius artists but expressions of general cultural currents, are metaphors of the body images generated by the respective epochs. By this every body techniques, for example classical dance style, reveals a certain perspective on world, a manner how man perceives his surrounding environment and also himself. In this respect body technique, garden architecture and baroque style are comparable as a materialisation of a philosophy of life. The human body is a place, a scene of cultural inscription, in which human longings, fantasies and cultural dreams are realized. 

The human body is a landscape in which the different epochs of the European process of civilisation were imprinted. The historic-critical view on theatre makes us understand the cultural changes in European history and gives us hints at the possibilities to deal with them. The aim of Transversal Berlin is to understand theatre in its own culture generating functions and to make them transparent to a greater public. 

Transversal Berlin and its relation to the cultural routes 

 With this understanding of the cultural functions of theatre Transversal Berlin refers to the main principle of the concept of Cultural Routes of the European Council, which is the importance of an understanding of the cultural heritage for an European citizenship. The aim is to make visible the roots in European history which are common to the European countries. It is intended to work by this for a better understanding between the European countries in order to establish the fundamentals of an European citizenship. 

With this the Cultural Routes push against nationalism and racism. To understand other people and other cultures means for the cultural routes to accept differences and to be able to recognize something of oneself in the other's. Within this philosophy of the cultural routes we have developed three fields, in which the cultural heritage of theatre is used to show the common roots of European history and socialisation strategies and to work on the base of a peaceful way of living together in Europe: - education, theatre and European citizenship - cultural heritage and active memory by theatrical means - relation of art and society seen through the history of theatre and theatricality 

 The first practical application: Projects on theatre and education. 

Of course the work with young adults, which will be the European citizens of tomorrow is a very important task within the programme of the cultural routes and of Transversal Berlin as a part of it. So we look for a practical application of theatre to create a better understanding between people by using the cultural-generating side of theatre. We have two examples of practical projects. a. Theatre of the youth As the german section of Les Transversales we invited a theatre group of Frankfurt-upon-Oder to the meeting of young European groups in Bussang (France), an event, which was organized by Theatrales. 

The group was a part of an independent and self organized theatre, called the "Theatre in the Sheds" near the polish border, in which nearly 100 adolescents are assembling. The theatre exists since 1991 in the building of an old factory, with a little bar in the foyer, old arm chairs and sofa for the audience. These young people are pupils from different schools, but also apprentices and some also unemployed. In different groups and under the leadership of teachers, dancers or actors they are rehearsing classical plays like Goethes Faust but also self choreographed dances and self-written texts about their everyday life situation. 

The young people are taught in dance techniques, acrobatics, pantomime, free improvisations. But more important is to overcome personal fears and uncertainties than to learn a dance technique perfectly. The personal development of the adolescents is the leading objective of the theatrical work.

The work is not focused on the performances, which are usually sold out, but on the rehearsals. The aim is not to produce beautiful performances but to follow ones own associations, imaginations and to make personal experiences by using theatrical means. The work aims not to train new actors or to give birth to new stars, but to use the theatre as a medium to reflect once own life with the body, to develop personality and to support the growing of identity of the adolescents. With these objectives the "Theatre in the Sheds" fits perfectly to the European meetings of young theatre groups organised by Theatrales. They are necessary to overcome cultural borders, recognize specific patterns of perception and expression in order to realise similarities and differences in the life of young Europeans In the last months the theatre started two new projects. 

Some of the elder pupils, who made experiences in the group since three years offered to a few Kindergarten in the town animation projects with children. Former apprentices started to learn to lead groups still guided by their own teachers. Another group of adolescents who left school and started to work in factories or services meets once a week to reflect their new life in scenic situations. Theatre is adapted to the personal needs of the adolescents. 

Formation of theatre-educationalist The members of Transversal Berlin will continue this work in the field of 'theatre pedagogic' - as you call it in Germany - in the following years together with Theatrales and the "Wannseeheim für Jugendarbeit" in Berlin. 

The Wannseeheim für Jugendarbeit' situated at the lake Wannsee is a renowned institution for multi-national projects with young people. In 1947, two years after the Second World War, the 'Camp of Wannsee' was founded by the US-american administration. The aim of this camp was the re-education of the german youth to democratic citizens. From the beginning until today a combination of artistic work and political formation determined the projects. In 1951 an american foundation bought a villa of a banker and donated it to the new established institution Wannseeheim für Jugendarbeit' which was the official successor of the 'Camp of Wannsee'. In the fifties the focal point of the work was still to democratise the youth federations in whole Berlin, but since 1961 only those of West-Berlin. Since the "Deutsch/Franzosisches Jugendwerk" (French-German Institution for the youth) was established at the beginning of the seventies. Wannseeheim became the centre of the bi-national events in Berlin, in which young French and German were meeting, working and learning together. Since 1985 multi-national projects are realized every year. Every summer several young amateur theatre groups from different European countries meet for a three-weeks-workshop with professional actors and directors. A team of professionals from France, Italy, Great Britain, Austria and Poland is not only advising but also leading the practical actions on the artistic level. From the beginning the education of adolescents to democratic citizens was the objective of the colleagues of Wannseeheim. Artistic means and techniques of the different arts like theatre, dance, literature, music, painting, video, etc...are used to promote the personal development of the youth. Because of this abundant experience in multi-national projects with European teenagers the "Wannseeheim für Jugendarbeit" is an ideal partner for Theatrales. The villa at the lake Wannsee near Berlin is an important German cultural heritage in the process of democratisation of the German youth after the fascistic era and since the last twenty years as a forum of European citizenship. Our main objective in the field of theatre-pedagogic will be the formation of teachers. In 1997 Transversal Berlin and the "Wannseeheim für Jugendarbeit" together with Theatrales will organize a  of formation in the different European countries. A great importance will be put on the analysis of theatrical techniques and its impact on the development of adolescents to democratic citizens. 

The second Practical application: Making visible the culture Generating function of theatre and other culture heritages Besides this obvious educational application of theatre Transversal Berlin aims to make alive cultural heritage by theatrical means, that is to say to make visible and comprehensible their cultural inscription and productive, culture-shaping capacities. Hellerau, a quarter of Dresden, is in this sense an important pla ce, because it integrates architectural as well as theatrical cultural heritage. Hellerau makes us to understand the relation between building and body, between architecture and theatrical and performative techniques. In the development of the European culture Hellerau was an important place and should be recognised as an European cultural heritage. Hellerau was a garden city near Dresden established as a concrete realisation of a social utopia, as a new relationship between work and life as a whole. 

The Festspielhaus built up by Heinrich Tessenow in 1910 was the first European building which was constructed according to functional patterns. For this reason the Festspielhaus is a precursor of the later Bauhaus-style and a significant step in the history of European architecture. Emile Jacques-Dalcroze's school for rhythm and dance, which he led from 1911 Still 1914 in the Festspielhaus, belongs to the institutions which initiated the raising of the Modern Dance in the twentieth. century. Just so the stage and light design experiments of Adolphe Appia, which were elaborated for the performances of the school, revolutionised the whole European theatre. In rhythmics and dance Jacques-Dalcroze created body techniques, body images and choreographs, which carried out the dissolution of individual boarders and which tried to reintegrate the individual into the social community or respective into the cosmos. 

 Hellerau is at the same time a metaphor for the ambivalence of social utopia and the violence the realisations of utopian ideas are connected with. After the outbreak of the First World War Jacques-Dalcroze and Appia were accused as spies and had to leave Germany. The body-images, the utopia ideals and dance techniques however continued to live in the German dance of the 20s and 30s. Particularly in the choreographs of Mary Wigman, the most famous pupil of GJacques-Dalcroze, this desire for dissolution of individual borders were artistically expressed. So it was easy for the national socialistic movement to use these tendencies for their own political aims. And some German artists willingly took part in arranging and creating cultural events of the German government under Hitler like Rudolf Laben or Mary Wigman. 

The search for an immediate - unmediated - communication and for borderless corporal gathering, which were the leading ideas of the dance and theatre avant-garde in Hellerau, later could be received by the totalitarian movements. This historical background suggests the question on this transformation of the idea of a dignified life to a totalitarian system. It is asked for the affinity of the utopia potential of modern culture to the violent structures of repressive societies and not at least which function the artist and his work undertook in this process. In order to make this ambivalence of European cultural heritage in "bodies and buildings" visible we organized in 1994 together with the "Forderverein für eine europaische Kulturwerkstatt Hellerau" (European cultural association Hellerau) a festival at the Festspielhaus, in which we put the focus on this  relation between art and power and the power of art. Many European artists from different genres were invited to gave their opinion artistically on this problem. A rock band and dance company from Slovenia, a performance group with colleagues from Peru and Germany, an opera from Austria, a theatre group from Dresden and other artists for one week transformed the Festspielhaus area to a living place. On a panel discussion with George Tabori, Hans Jurgen Syberberg, and the German film makers Helma Sanders-Brahms and Lutz Dammbeck it was Bazon Brock who pointed out the use of artistic means and techniques for political power and its violent objectives not only during the period of the fascistic government in Germany. Nobody will ignore the dangerousness of theatrical means remembering that in 1932/1933 Adolf Hitler was accompanied by an acting teacher, who taught him how to fill his audience with enthusiasm. 

The ethical principle of Transversal Berlin The experiences of our work in Hellerau convinced us, that the realisations of social utopias in European history is linked with violence. 

This experience influenced the ethical principle of our work. Transversal Berlin does not like to proclaim a new aesthetic, we do not propagate new utopia ideas of a better world by creating beautiful performances. Social utopian ideas particularly artistically wrapped up caused enough disaster in European history. Transversal Berlin likes to point out the construction of European culture and how theatre is involved in the process of generating civilisation in future. To ask for the further process of culture and civilisation is an important issue which will run through the work of Transversal Berlin. In august 1993 we conceived and organised a symposium in cooperation with "Tanzwerkstatt Berlin" and the German dance magazine "Tanz aktuell", which took place in Podewil, a famous locality for art events in Berlin. "Body and Aesthetics" was the headline of this symposium and two key questions led the lectures and the discussions in which participated beneath others the german philosopher Dietmar Kamper and the Canadian specialist in culture and technology Derrick de Kerckhove: 

1. What is the relevance of aesthetic experience in a highly technical world? 

2. What are the sensory and physical resources available to human communication under these circumstances? Differences were discussed concerning the effects which the representation of the human body in mass media will have on the body of the human being in the occidental culture. Two opposite thesis were pointed out: 

1. Caused by the digitalization in the new media the human body and his resources of immediate sensitivity will disappear. 

2. Getting used to the electronic image of our body we will develop in ourselves a new form of spiritual sensitivity. We will continue this work in our next project, which will again take place in the Podewil this year "Sprache der Dinge" we ask for the relation between body and object/technology. In working demonstrations and discussions we will thematize the relations between man and object in scenic situations as metaphor for man's situation in an increasingly technicized age, in which man appears to be threatened with becoming a prothesis for machines and communication technologies. 

The way how we deal theatrically with body, object and space possibilities are pointed out, to reflect at an aesthetic level influences of technology and media and to outline and to try several patterns of relations between man and the technologist world around him. The discussions of artists and scientists will ask for the development of man, his perception, his individual freedom and the civilisation in a technicized world. 

The third application: Realizing the theatricality of everyday life. The huge efficacy of artistic and media patterns on the generating process of culture and society should not be underestimated. This is also evident realizing the theatricality of everyday life. We do not only think of popular festivities with their masks and processions but also of political ceremonies, military parades which have unusually an intense impact on both, the actors and the spectators. The artistically constructed expressions are a part of a extensive cultural process and has a not to underestimated effect on the participants. And still today it is necessary to point out that art and its means and techniques on the level of morality are not good of itself. Just as social and political violence doesn't always appear in an ugly dress. Working on the border between art and society we focused our attention on the theatricality as a part of everyday life. 

To make the theatricality of everyday life conscious to the ordinary passers-by was the objective of our project Zwischen-Raumen (Inbetween-Spaces) in 1993 which took place as a part of the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of the city of Potsdam. Methods and techniques of the performing arts were used as means of reflection and experience to analyze the body as point of intersection in perception and communication of everyday life. Transversal Berlin invited different artists, who left the theatrical space of illusion to reintegrate aesthetic behaviour into everyday life. 

The aim was not the presentation of a fixed well elaborated performance but to cross the border between performer and spectator towards an interaction of the both. The invited artists and theatre groups hold a mirror towards the passers-by to make them attentive to their own habits and conventions, their behaviours and how it is fixed and prearranged by social convention and the architectural structure of the town. Will Spoor one of the most self-willed mimeograph of the Netherlands opened the events in Potsdam with his "Zebra-Walking-Performance". Zebra was the magic monster, a serpent created by the participants following each other at a certain distance. Zebra twisted through the streets and over the places of the city in choreographic lines which were prearranged in a space time-table including all the performers. By their anonymous presence the performers altered the urban-environment, by introducing sounds, colours and rhythms that was disturbing or even provocative. 

Zebra has its only purpose to reveal the latent theatricality of the urban-landscape and of the everyday life behaviour. The sound-movement-installation "The very nervous system" of the Canadian composer David Rockeby was set up in the centre of Potsdam. This combination of video camera, computer and synthesizer transformed body movement in real time into sounds and music so that the space became an acustial environment in interaction with the movement. We invited not only actors and dancers to use this electronic environment but also passers-by on their way to go shopping tried it.

The spectacle "Figurazzione of Silence Teatro di Bergamo" led the spectators on a theatrical journey into the past of Potsdam. By performing scenes of the 16th and 17th century some today's places and courts of the city were transformed in images of past times. By using the time machine 'theatre' the actors evoked traces and remembrances of history in the audience. "Resonance - Topography of Remembrance and Presence" was a sightseeing tour with sounds, noises and stories by the sound painter Walter Siegfried/Munich. 

Walking through the city of Potsdam together with some inhabitants Walter Siegfried recorded sounds, noises and remembrances which were chosen by his participants and which he assembled on a tape afterwards. By this he constructed a topography of sounds in relation to certain places of the town. In September he invited the inhabitants of Potsdam to accompany him on his sightseeing tour. Siegfried's event provoked an irritation of the auditive and visual perception and by this made an unusual visual focus possible to the users of his walking performance. 

 Under the headline: Gesture as the Place of Intersection between Everyday Life and Dream Yves Marc/Paris held a workshop for young actors and actor-pupils focused on the body and his gestures in everyday life spaces.Using the techniques of corporal mime and other body-skills the actors changed themselves into deformed mirrors of usual behaviours in order to confront the spectators of the street performance with their own habits as something strange and unknown. In the final symposium Aesthetic Concepts and Utopian Ideas to which the artists and some scientists were invited the contributions of the participants were focused on the ways of Implantation' of aesthetic methods and techniques in everyday life and their affection on the senses of the spectators. It was asked for the relevance of art and theatre as means of communication considering relations between body movement, gesture, social behaviour and the urban landscape.

Resume: 

Effects of Transversal and future These two examples, the festival in Hellerau and the events in Potsdam attracted a lot of audience to our performances. This proves that events conceived and organized by Transversal Berlin may have a productive influence on tourist industry of a town or a region. In this context we also like to call the attention on the fact, that several cultural routes like Baroque, Gardens and Parks, Monasteries and Religious Cultures and not at least the Route of Popular Rites and Festivals are occupied with behaviour, spaces, ideas, media which cannot be characterized as theatre but which are extremely theatrical. We strive for a cooperation with these colleagues and offer our professional knowledge. 

 Sept. 1996, TRANSVERSAL Berlin, Lambert Blum, Martina Leeker.

Photos : Headline :Hellerau.

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