Frankfurt Lab

“Can you pro­tect my light from the wind?” is the sto­ry of a fri­endship; a sto­ry of mu­tu­al so­li­da­ri­ty and care across a bor­der drawn by war right through Eu­ro­pe. Di­rec­tor and ac­tor Tris­tan Steeg and di­rec­tor and do­cu­men­ta­ry thea­ter ar­tist Yev­he­niia Vi­dish­che­va from Kyiv have em­bar­ked on a jour­ney of dis­co­very. In their ar­tis­tic re­se­arch, they ex­plo­re the dis­crepan­cy bet­ween their worlds. They vi­sit each other’s ho­mes and get to know each other’s fa­mi­lies. Вони відвідують рідні міста одне одного, знайомляться з родинами та друзями. They talk about grief. About fear. About an­ger. About war. About be­au­ty. Про страх. Про гнів. Про війну. Про красу. About safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty. About iden­ti­ty. And how to be the­re for each other. What a home is. Що таке дім. And what hap­pens when it is at­ta­cked. They trans­la­te for each other and sha­re their sto­ries and pain in an at­tempt to re­spond to a vio­lent world of mul­ticri­ses. Намагаючись захистити одне одного.

“By and with: Yev­he­niia Vi­dish­che­va and Tris­tan Steeg
Out­si­de Eye: Eva Stall­baum

Con­tent no­tes: War and its psy­cho­lo­gi­cal con­se­quen­ces are dis­cus­sed.

Sup­por­ted by the Goe­the In­sti­tu­te.

How do you learn to grie­ve when the­re has ne­ver been a space for it?
What re­mains of fe­ma­le images that have emer­ged bet­ween strength, con­for­mi­ty, and si­lence?
And how can you deal with grief wi­t­hout ha­ving to ex­p­lain or re­sol­ve it?

En­ga­ging with theo­re­ti­cal and ar­tis­tic po­si­ti­ons, in­clu­ding tho­se of Ber­tolt Brecht and Su­san Son­tag, “Si­lence of sys­tem/s” asks how suf­fe­ring is shown, view­ed, or igno­red – and what re­spon­si­bi­li­ty this ent­ails for view­ers. Against the back­drop of cur­rent po­li­ti­cal vio­lence in Eas­tern Eu­ro­pe, the fo­cus is not on abs­tract power re­la­ti­ons, but on their quiet ef­fec­ts on wo­men’s self-con­fi­dence. Post-So­viet fe­mi­nist sto­ries and works by fe­ma­le ar­tists of the 1970s in the for­mer Eas­tern Bloc are pre­sen­ted. The in­stal­la­ti­on in­vi­tes view­ers to un­der­stand grief as a so­ci­al and po­li­ti­cal prac­tice that un­folds bet­ween per­so­nal and collec­tive ex­pe­ri­en­ces.

By: Csen­ge Ka­t­i­ca Ki­ra­ly
Out­si­de Eye: Lin Yang

Amira and Aurélie have been friends for over 10 years. One is Palestinian-German, the other is Jewish, both live in Germany – events in Israel and Palestine have always played a role in their friendship. Since October 2023, they sense a change within themselves, in Germany, and in public discourse. Their conversations have also become more urgent.

In the performance “Aber sonst alles ‘gut’ soweit” [But otherwise everything‘s „fine“(working title)] Amira and Aurélie hand over the “material of their friendship” to three performers. By examining, tracing and discussing it from a third-party perspective, they want to make the material accessible.

Content notes: topics of violence, depression and anxiety, war and terror

Concept: Amira Al-Dari, Joris Domogalski, Aurélie Feucht
Performance: Lilith Borchert, Hannah Lindner, Dascha Dumont
Direction and design: Aurélie Feucht
Dramaturgy: Joris Domogalski
Artistic Collaboration: Amira Al-Dari, Gil Hoz-Klemme
Outside Eye: Azadeh Ganjeh
Mentoring: Monika Gysel, Friederike Thielmann

“Ne сутулься” (literally: “don’t slouch”) is how the acting teacher in Moscow corrected Julia and her fellow students’ posture. When social media is blocked, this reminder becomes the name of her Telegram channel, where Julia documents her everyday life as a student in Moscow and later from exile in Germany.

This channel becomes the central theme of a media art performance that deals with a life in constant confrontation with war, state regime, and propaganda. In doing so, the performer Julia combines personal material with media images of the war between Russia and Ukraine. She navigates live through Moscows streets, Telegram posts, state news, and private recordings. What does it mean when private everyday life and political catastrophe become inseparable, and how is it possible to continue living? Amid media contradictions, overlaps, and translations, Julia finds herself between growing overload and resistance.

Content Note: Loud volume and intense visual stimuli are used. Physical and psychological violence, nationalist language, war, and trauma are addressed and partially depicted.

Direction, performance: Julia Chaplygina
Dramaturgy: Eva Stallbaum

By and with: Li­lith Bor­chert, Ju­lia Chaply­gi­na, Jo­ris Do­mog­al­ski, Da­scha Du­mont, Au­ré­lie Feucht, Kati Ki­ra­ly, dog Luna, Han­nah Lind­ner, Eva Stall­baum, Tris­tan Steeg, Yev­he­niia Vi­dish­che­va and allies
Mentoring: Mo­ni­ka Gy­sel, Frie­de­ri­ke Thiel­mann
Production Management: Jo­nas We­ber