Gerhard Lang, Transitus, 2017, graphite on paper, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
How do I get from here to there? By crossing through the space in between, the transition zone. Yet a from where is never separated by a to where with clean cut. The transition from one to the other is slow, gradual, and the one never disappears completely into the other.
Transitus is a performance dealing with a transition zone whose permeability is in flux. The participating choir, Cantiamo Kassel, under the direction of Andreas Cessak, is from the Institut für Musik at the Universität Kassel.
Transitus is based on a walk that Helmut Aebischer, Gerhard Lang, Ruth Jureczek, and students from the Universität Kassel conducted in honor of Lucius und Annemarie Burckhardt in 1993. They strolled through the pedestrian-hostile city center of Kassel with a group of 600 participants. Through the use of vividly staged scenes, they called attention to the obstacles confronting pedestrians today, which need to be overcome by planning. A useful tool from the 1993 exercise will appear once again in Transitus.
This performance is generously supported by Sourisseaux Partners and the collaboration of documenta 14 aneducation’s Unpacking Burckhardt program.
Many thanks to Annie Vigier and Frank Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan) for the use of the stage, which forms part of their work for documenta 14, Scène à l’italienne (Proscenium).