MEDIATHEK

With her 1974 novel The Dispossessed, author Ursula Le Guin created one of the great narratives of science fiction literature, revolving around life on the two fictional planets Urras and Anarres. In her detailed description of social practices and modes of relationship, Le Guin creates an ambivalent utopia that makes political ideas such as anarchism, socialism, and capitalism tangible.

Almost 50 years after the novel’s publication, HORIZON PROBLEMS is dedicated to this multi-layered scenario and makes it experienceable from a queer-feminist perspective, with the means of contemporary dance. Together with the dancers Rachell Bo Clark and Natasha Vergilió, the choreographer Judith Förster creates both eclectic and detailed images of togetherness. The bodies on stage are each other’s tools and materials: they challenge and nurture, play, use and exploit – creating a microcosm of solos and moments of imperfect unison.

After showdown and handle with care, HORIZON PROBLEMS is the third work by Judith Förster, in which she employs science fiction narratives to pursue a physical-emotional approach to coexistence and belonging in a complex society.

/ CAST & CREDITS /

CHOREOGRAPHY, CONCEPT, DESIGN, DANCE: Judith Förster

DANCE: Natasha Vergilio, Rachell Bo Clark

DRAMATURGY: Isabel Gatzke

SOUND, TECHNICAL DIRECTION: Alexander Iezzi

LIGHTING DESIGN: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo

SET ASSISTANCE: Jonna Carstensen

VIDEO SCULPTURES: Stella Horta

OUTSIDE EYE: Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Sofia Fantuzzi

A production by Judith Förster in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE.

Supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the Federal Cultural Foundation with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.

With the kind support of Theaterhaus Mitte and LAKE Studios Berlin.

JUDITH FÖRSTER works as a stage and costume designer, dancer and choreographer in Berlin. Since her costume design studies in Hamburg (2011-14), she has designed numerous opera and theater productions as well as performative, collaborative works. With her studies at the Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz in Berlin (2015-18), she focused on dance and performance in stage and costume design, as well as in her own artistic works. The interaction of body and material, as well as the inherent potential for intimacy and liminality, is the focus of her research, finding new forms, again and again, in collaborations with choreographers, visual artists and dancers including: OMSK Social Club, Julian Weber, Monica Bonvicini and André Uerba.

NATASHA VERGILIÓ is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in Berlin, Germany. Passionate about artistic connections and processes that match and nurture her intrinsic interests, such as movement direction, dance film, dance performance and experimental videos. Her artworks engage through visual haptics/synesthesia and sensual imagery, motivated by a metaphorical, mystical and visceral language. Her films and dance works have been exhibited and awarded in São Paulo (Brazil), Berlin (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark) and St. Petersburg (Russia).

RACHELL BO CLARK is a dancer from Melbourne Australia, living in Berlin. Rachell studied dance at the Victorian College of the Arts before moving to Europe in 2014, where she has established herself as a performer, artist and teacher. Inspired by the connective possibilities of dance, and the friendships, intimacy and community it builds, Rachell continues to collaborate and perform with a variety of choreographers. At this moment Rachell is busy with: transformation, motherhood and collaboration.

ALEXANDER IEZZI is an artist and musician living in Berlin. His practice is based on the transformation of materials into scenes, figures, sound, and moving images, in order to attain the surreal. Work begins with auditive and visual environments in which experiments are improvised and carried out, which then are later redesigned as artworks. Iezzi’s work moves between sculptural installations, video, radio and live performance. He received his MFA from the Piet van Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Together with composer Billy Bultheel he publishes music under the pseudonym 33 on the label C.A.N.V.A.S.

ISABEL GATZKE works as a dramaturg in the field of contemporary dance and performance. Her practice is marked by the close connection of dramaturgy as practical-theoretical research as well as a method in artistic processes and is characterized by an engagement with language and movement. Isabel and Judith have already been working together since 2017 and realized together The Time it Takes to Melt (my heart) (2017), constructive rest (2019) as well as the production showdown (2020) and handle with care (2021).

STELLA HORTA is a video artist and filmmaker. In her work she usually deals with research in more-than-human perspectives. While working in close collaboration with performers and visual artists she has been developing a practice in so called “somatic cinema”. More recently she has been weaving in feminist new materialist methodologies in her video work that challenges the digital/physical binary.

HANNA KRITTEN TANGSOO is a lighting designer and a choreographer based in Berlin. She studied Dance/Dance Pedagogy at Tartu University Viljandi Culture Academy in Estonia (2011-2014) and BA Tanz, Kontext, Choreographie at HZT Berlin (2014-2017). Since then, she has worked as a freelance artist both in dance and lighting. She is part of the ETC Fred Foster Mentorship program international branch 2021 for young lighting designers. She is a co-founder of a Berlin based dance collective called “Suddenly” since 2017.

IXCHEL MENDOZA HERNÁNDEZ is a Mexican freelance choreographer, performer/dancer based in Berlin. She completed her choreography and dance studies at ArtEZ Arnheim in 2007. From 2013 until 2015, she took part in the MA program Solo/Dance/Authorship (SoDA) at HZT in Berlin. As choreographer, she researches a phenomenon she calls “Visual Ghost”, an experiment of perception that continuously transforms or evolves: Living in a world in which the materialized and visible is intertwined with the immaterial and the invisible, Visual Ghost explores how the invisible and immaterial can come into presence through the senses.

JONNA CARSTENSEN is a textile artist and costume painter based in Berlin. She works for theatre and film productions. Her work includes breakdown, ageing and dyeing of costumes and fabrics.

SOFIA FANTUZZI was born in Bologna in 1994 and graduated in Communication and Evaluation of Contemporary Art at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino in 2019. She has been living in Berlin since 2017, working as a freelance producer and production manager in the independent dance and performance scene.

// DEUTSCH //

Mit ihrem Roman Die Enteigneten (The Dispossessed) schuf die Autorin Ursula Le Guin 1974 eine der großen Erzählungen der Science-Fiction-Literatur, die um das Leben auf den zwei fiktiven Planeten Urras und Anarres kreist. In der detaillierten Beschreibung der gesellschaftlichen Praktiken und Beziehungsweisen entwirft Le Guin eine ambivalente Utopie, die politische Ideen wie Anarchismus, Sozialismus und Kapitalismus greifbar macht.

Fast 50 Jahre nach Erscheinen des Romans widmet sich HORIZON PROBLEMS diesem vielschichtigen Szenario und macht es aus queer-feministischer Perspektive mit den Mitteln des zeitgenössischen Tanzes erfahrbar: Gemeinsam mit den Tänzerinnen Rachell Bo Clark und Natasha Vergilió entwirft die Choreografin Judith Förster eklektische und gleichzeitig detaillierte Bilder des Zusammenseins. Die Körper auf der Bühne sind sich gegenseitig Werkzeug und Material: Sie fordern und nähren, spielen, benutzen und beuten aus – sie bilden einen Mikrokosmos aus Soli und Momenten unvollständigen Einklangs.

Nach showdown und handle with care ist HORIZON PROBLEMS die dritte Arbeit von Judith Förster, in der sie anhand von Science-Fiction-Narrativen nach einem körperlich-emotionalen Zugang zum Zusammenleben in einer komplexen Gesellschaft forscht.

/ BESETZUNG & CREDITS /

CHOREOGRAFIE, KONZEPT, AUSSTATTUNG, TANZ: Judith Förster

TANZ: Natasha Vergilio, Rachell Bo Clark

DRAMATURGIE: Isabel Gatzke

SOUND, TECHNISCHE LEITUNG: Alexander Iezzi

LICHTDESIGN: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo

AUSSTATTUNGSASSISTENZ: Jonna Carstensen

VIDEO-SKULPTUREN: Stella Horta

OUTSIDE EYE: Ixchel Mendoza Hernández

PRODUKTIONSLEITUNG: Sofia Fantuzzi

Eine Produktion von Judith Förster in Koproduktion mit SOPHIENSÆLE.

Gefördert durch die Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa und die Kulturstiftung des Bundes aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.

Gefördert durch den Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR.

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Theaterhaus Mitte und LAKE Studios Berlin.

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