Public access
Open
Venue
CABUWAZI Marzahn, Otto-Rosenberg-Straße 2,
12681 Berlin, Germany.
Inside circus tent
Tickets
Date & Time
23 – 26 November, 2023
20.00
Language
German
More Information
Click here for more information on “la dance d’amazon, a fulfillment circus” by Daniel Wetzel
A Fullfilment Centre
A theatre nouveau format about fulfillment, centralisation and performance. “Performance is everything”, says Pjotr, a trainer of future circus artists. “Work hard, have fun, make history”, the Amazonians read every day on the ceilings above their heads. “This is our last dance, this is us under pressure”, hums one of them along to the music programme at the single items packing station.
La Danse d’Amazon assembled the experiences of Amazonians, circus artists, theorists on money, commodities, experts for e-commerce, behaviourism, accelerationism, the situation of the Amazonas region, the rise of the, by far, biggest selling platform the world has ever seen, and the act of smiling. The 18 chapters of Ulysses were transformed into an 18-hour protocol of the day’s world markets and what is said about them, and located the traces of certain commodities within them, in mines, factories, in containers, websites and in clouds. The core question of the project was: What do we do for Amazon and what does Amazon do for us?
Shopping malls and zones are changing, “stay in your cave, guys!”, shout the advertisements of the last-mile courier services, and even supermarkets have been perpetuating and speeding up their delivery services into the night and into the home. This play was not about lamenting the transformation, but dealing with its pace-setter, Amazon and those who make it grow.
The catalogue of goods on the Amazon marketplace 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 inviteed us to the CABUWAZI circus in Marzahn and asked: 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”?
With:
Monsur Babalola, Sebastian Herzfeld, Laleshka Salas Salazar, Basile Herrmann Philippe, Zirkusarchiv Gisela und Dietmar Winkler
Director: Daniel Wetzel
Dramaturgy: Aljoscha Begrich
Artistic Direction conception phase: Jean Peters (Peng! Kollektiv)
Research: Linn Günther
Stage, Costume: Nicole Timm
Choreography: Venetsiana Kalabaliki
Video design: Grit Schuster, Fine Freiberg
Lighting: David Scholz
Sound & Video Technology: Fine Freiberg
Graphic Design: Valentin Wetzel
Technical Direction: David Scholz
Artistic Collaboration: Linn Günther, Luna Anogiáti
Artistic Collaboration stage: Albertine Mietusch
Technical Collaboration: Louis Rixner
Video model: Gaurav Singh
Internship costume: Mats Binder, Jonas Roscher
Production Management: Chloé Ferro, Steven Sander
Press and Public Relations: Alexandra Lauck
Co-produced with Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik.
In collaboration with Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz a.o.
Event Photos
Audience feedback
“It made perfect sense to have the director of the play on stage as the showmaster next to his expert of the everyday, reporting on his research into Amazon’s capitalist mechanisms.“
“I wished the play had delivered its insights into Amazon’s business and its impact on both international and national levels with even harsher criticism – even though many of us are part of the problem.“
“It was fascinating to see how the play connected the disciplines of circus and capitalism – e-commerce strategies played out in the circus ring alongside the impressive stunts of the performers. The inflatable polar bears at the end of the performance were especially unexpected.”
“The sound of rain on the tent roof during the premiere, along with the clicking of the toy frogs, created a surprising and spontaneous moment of immersion, transporting me to another Amazon.“
“Despite the subtitles, it was sometimes difficult to understand all the information provided due to the multilingual nature of the play; however, the visual elements compensated for much of that, as many things were happening on stage.“