staats-theater

Daniel Kötter

‘staats-theater: Lagos/Teheran/Berlin’ is a modular art and research project initiated by Berlin based video artists Daniel Kötter and Constanze Fischbeck in collaboration with performers and architects from Lagos, Tehran, and Berlin, as well as the collective Hunter & Gatherer (Manuel Shvartzberg and Fabian Faltin). The project undertakes an exemplary investigation of the state-representational and socio-political conditions of theatre and the opposing informal potential of performativity in three capital cities: Lagos (Nigeria), Tehran (Iran) and Berlin (Germany).

Presentation format

According to its modular layout staats-theater is not bound to a specific artistic genre:
The presentation format varies from exhibition, film screening and theatre performance to panel discussion or text publication.

Presentation formats so far:
- video installation and objects (Experimental film staats-theater #1 LAGOS, flyer Visions of the National Theatre of Nigeria, at the exhibition Afropolis at Rautenstrauch Joest Museum, Cologne, 4.11.2010-13.3.2011)
- stage performance (with Sara Reyhani, Segun Adefila, Jörn J. Burmester, Andreas Müller, 2.-4.12.2010 at the Mousonturm Theatre, Frankfurt, February 2012 at the Fajr Festival, Tehran)
- film screening and panel discussion (Experimental film staats-theater: Lagos/Tehran/Berlin at the Akademie der Künste Berlin 31.8.2011)

- to be released:

experimental films

staats-theater #2 TEHRAN (March 2011)

staats-theater #3 BERLIN (August 2011)

For the online presentation for JAR Daniel Kötter and Constanze Fischbeck decided to focus on the National Theatre of Lagos and chose a three part structure referring to three different complementary perspectives:

- filmic approach
making use of the footage of their experimental film staats-theater #1 LAGOS, Kötter and Fischbeck link film, graphic and architecture by allowing the user to zoom in the vast and modernist architecture of the abandoned National Theatre of Lagos.

- approach in architecture theory
based on photographs taken by Kötter/Fischbeck Berlin-based architect Andreas Müller analyzes the architecture’s political and historical implications.

- speculative approach
Hunter & Gatherer (author Fabian Faltin and architect Manuel Shvartzberg) in collaboration with Nigerian architect Ayodele Arigbabu present a set of tourist flyers, exploring fictional, utopian and dystopian uses for Nigeria's National Theatre.

Tip

Tip