“Death and Birth in My Life” is Mats Staub’s new long-term project. He investigates the existential experiences related to processes of being born and dying, of life’s beginning and life’s end. Mats Staub, therefore, brings two people together in the location of each presentation and lets them start a conversation with him present as an invisible companion and filmer. As a video installation, it attempts to create a space for intimacy, simultaneously enabling a common experience. Before the Festival, Mats Staub recorded conversations with people from the Perg-Strudengau region. These will be presented along with the conversations from other corners of the world.
Start: every 30 minutes
Credits:
Idea, Concept, Direction: Mats Staub
Camera: Benno Seidel, Matthias Stickel
Szenography: Monika Schori
Cooperation Dramaturgy: Simone von Büren, Elisabeth Schack
Cooperation Recherche: Tim Harrison (Manchester), Maia Marie (Magaliesburg), Patrick Mudekereza (Lubumbashi), Dada Kahindo (Kinshasa), Marcus Rehberger (Basel), Nele Beinborn (Frankfurt), Wolfram Sander (Hannover), Celya Larré (Paris), Leo Saftic (Perg)
Execution : Hanno Sons, Stefan Göbel
Post-Production: Benno Seidel
Translation, subtitles: Simona Weber, Martin Thomas Pesl, Matthias Stickel, Benno Seidel
Head of Production: Elisabeth Schack, Barbara Simsa
Production: zwischen_produktionen
Coproduction: Kaserne Basel, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Sick! Festival Manchester, Festival Theaterformen Hannover, Festival der Regionen Perg, Spielart Festival München, Lalela Magaliesburg, Centre d’Art Waza Lubumbashi, Centre culturel suisse Paris, Festival Bollwerk Belluard International Fribourg, Migros-Kulturprozent
Supported by: Fachausschuss Tanz und Theater BS/BL, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Christoph Merian Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung
“Which deaths and which births have influenced and transformed my life thus far?” The new long-term project by Mats Staub investigates the existential experiences related to processes of being born and dying, of life’s beginning and life’s end. He approaches universal instances of birth and death through individual narratives that relate to their local contexts.
As a video installation, it attempts to create a space for intimacy, simultaneously enabling a common experience.
In “Death and Birth in My Life,” Mats Staub focuses on the moment of the encounter: He brings two people together and lets them start a conversation while he accompanies them as an invisible companion. Through simple dramaturgy, he triggers the emergence of a fragile discussion about intimate moments and personal borderline experiences, breaking away from the constraints of conventional, everyday conversation. While the listeners in the videos sit, we as visitors simply listen to the speakers, take part, and engage. Before the Festival, Mats Staub recorded conversations with people from the Perg-Strudengau region. These will be presented along with the conversations from other corners of the world.
Mats Staub’s work has always had a strong biographical reference. He has been conducting numerous conversations for his participative projects for over ten years: For “My Grandparents” (Meine Großeltern), he interviewed more than 300 grandchildren in 14 cities; for “21 – Memories of Growing Up” (21 – Erinnerungen ans Erwachsenwerden), he gathered 200 video portraits in eight countries on three continents since 2012. For “Death and Birth in My Life,” he created a common space, the type that he missed having after his brother died in 2014: A space that allows people to talk about things that would otherwise be ignored, an inviting space for empathy and participation, thereby also offering consolation in the best case scenario.
First stops and dates
Basel, Kaserne, 6-8 June 2019 & 18 – 21 January, 2020
Hannover, Festival Theaterformen, 20 – 30 June, 2019
Perg, Festival der Regionen, 29 June – 7 July, 2019
Paris, Centre Culturel Suisse, 13 September – 6 October, 2019
Manchester, Sick! Festival, 18 September – 5 October, 2019
München, Spielart Festival, 25 October – 9 November, 2019
Frankfurt, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, 20 November – 19 December, 2019
Fribourg, Festival Belluard Bollwerk International, June 2020
Artist
Mats Staub was born in Muri, near Bern, in Switzerland in 1972. He lives and works in Berlin as well as in the working sites of his long-term projects. He studied Theater Studies, Journalism, and Religious Studies in Bern, Fribourg, and Berlin. He worked as a journalist for various publications and as a dramaturge at the Theater Neumarkt in Zürich from 2002–2004. Since 2004, he has been developing art projects at the juncture of theater, exhibiting, science, journalism, and literature.
Photo: Mats Staub
