Tabori Prize 2021 Transcript

LIMOUSINE

Yawns.

What time is it?

God, are we still here?

Whose turn is it to make breakfast?

Wait, let me check the list. Umm. It’s Sean’s turn.

Hey? But it’s always my turn to make breakfast!!

Sean, I'd like a toasted bagel with vegan cheese chia topping and a, maybe a Cremoso to go please.

Excuse me. And you'll get what you're given, Kumpel.

Oh man! According to my checklist, we just spent 365 days in this limousine. I’m not so great at math, but I think that means: a year has passed!

Oh, one year. That means it's like a whole year since we - Gob Squad Arts Collective - won the Tabori Prize and got to live the life of glamour and glitz!

Exactly! It was in May 2020 when the Fonds DaKu invited us to get into this limousine, raise a champagne toast and since then we have been living in here and never saw the light of day again.

But, back to the beginning: Who am I?

Sean, you are Sean founding member of Gob Squad Arts collective, you know, one of the groups of the free scene of Berlin.

And who are you?

I'm Simon. I've known you for 30 years.

And then who's that lady over there?

Sean. I am your oldest daughter Johanna’s godmother. I’m also a Gob Squad member. Are you just pretending to have forgotten everything so that you can draw attention away from you being up for making breakfast?

But…

Shit, where is my…

Gob Squad….

…lipstick cap.

…Arts Collective. What kind of a stupid name is that? I don’t get it: How someone could think that this name could be a path to success is beyond me. But collective? If so, then just the three of us.

Mmh, yeah we had to separate because of social distance reasonings.

Berit, Sarah, Bastian, Sharon, all ok up there?

Social distancing. What’s that?

Sean, why don’t you remember anything? Honestly, maybe you need to listen to Holger Bergmann from the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Ah, now I remember. I had to learn that at naturalization. The Federal Republic of Ger- many has three important organs: The Federal Chancellery with Mss. Merkel.

Correct.

The Ministry of Health with Mr. Spahn.

Correct.

And, most important, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with Holger Bergmann. Yes!

Sean, you just won your German passport!

Yes, and we represent the independent scene, so we are ever so free and flexible…

He’s remembering something!

We’re always ready for action. Wherever art, performing arts are needed, that’s where we are! And this Mr. Bergmann, he most likely has a few – well – orders for us.

Sean, watch this and you’ll remember everything.

Orders, Sean, are problematic. Let’s say we’re: „voluntarily ready for action“. Ok?

HOLGER BERGMANN SPEECH

Thank you Johanna, Sean and Simon, we haven’t come so far yet that the Fonds Darstellende Künste could be seen as the third most important organ next to the Federal Chancellery and the Ministry of Health, but a very special year with many challenges lies behind the Fonds’ team and the artists – and all of us as well.

So all the more gratifying that we can now once again join in a special and beautiful event – albeit digital and decentral, but all the same – to award the most important prize in the independent performing arts. Every year, the Tabori Prize celebrates diversity among independent performing artists and stands for the importance of the scene and the art that it creates.

It was also the goal of our support program #TakeThat to “sustain and stabilize variety in the independent performing arts”; we were able to infuse approximately 70 million EUR into the independently producing arts. Over the course of the last 14 months, we have not only been working on distributing funds, but also on continuing support measures for those for whom plan reliability in the federal independent performing arts will be the focus. In the future, the Fonds will let another 60 million EURO from Neustart Kultur flow into artistic work within the follow-up program #TakeHeart. So much for the work; let’s get back to celebrating!

Dear audience, dear colleagues, dear friends of the independent arts, dear prizewinners and award winners,

I would like to welcome you to this year’s awards ceremony 2021, in which trophies will be passed on in a very special way for the second time running. Look forward to the reasoned decisions of the Tabori expert jury made up of Franziska Werner, Carena Schlewitt and Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Wagner as well as the greetings from Sabine Bangert and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider, and especially the digital after-show party at the end, to which I would like to invite all of you with all of my heart. I would like to thank our funding body, the State Minister for Culture and the Media Prof. Monika Grütters, Mr. Mix, Mr. Eifler, Ms. Edelhoff, Ms. Seger and the entire BKM team without which no prize could be awarded today.

In addition, I would like to thank everyone who has made this digital awards ceremony possible, above all Gob Squad, the prizewinners from last year who are taking us with them on a mobile awards ceremony and allowing us to take part in a Tabori prizewinner’s life.

Dear Gob Squads, it is time for you to pass on the zepter – uhmm, the party limo – to 2021’s prizewinners…

LIMOUSINE

Oh, Sean, breakfast is almost ready. I always get a little carsick. I need something in my stomach.

Thanks.

Life here in the limousine – all that glitters is not gold – also has its dark sides.

Wow, look at that! Nice!

That’s not for us, Sean. Haven’t you heard? The time has come for us to pass on the scep- ter to the 2021 prizewinners.

Hey, that’s funny, it’s so heavy when you hold it.

Huh Sean, you’ll be saying there’s a golden envelope inside like there was in the 1970’s.

Wait a minute. There is a golden envelope inside. Great.

Let's open it and find out the winner and then we can deliver the honey pops corn flakes to whoever has won the award.

Deliver? Well, we used to be freelance artists and now we’ve become a kind of Reliverdoo or Rieferdando? Well, these irregular hours, no paid vacation, totally depend on commis- sions. So who would agree to these working conditions? Certainly no one, right?

So, before we announce the first award, we have to build up a little tension.

Yes, let’s do a drum roll. Oh no, we haven’t got any drums. How are we gonna build tension?

Ah! munching

The winner is - Flinn Works

TRAILER

Welcome to Aseveda and Flinn Works research institute. Thank you for participating in this research study on malaria.

You would probably shoot me if you could, right?

What are we doing?

You would probably shoot me if you could, right?

What are we doing?

You would probably shoot me if you could, right?

What are we doing?

We. We are making a theater piece. About you. About women in the textile industry in Bangladesh. I imagine, there are like three strong women. On a completely empty stage. Maybe there are a few sewing machines, too.

You stop buying these clothes only because of this komisch German guilt.

The thousands and thousands of people will lose their job and they - and their children will starve! So stop this guilt!

I want.

I want..

A virus.

A Virus.

That hacks toxic masculinity. Being a feminist man, it’s gonna change your life.

Why can’t you just pay for having kids? Why don’t we just pay for the work by women; then all women of the world would have FREEDOM!

LAUDATIO

The collective, which was founded in 1997, captivates audiences with its ethnographic in- vestigative research processes with which they research concrete cases and unfold in their productions. The artists work with a team of international protagonists on questions of globalization, capitalism, feminism and postcolonialism.

As broad as these subjects are, it is equally important for the company to find a respec- tively adequate form to deal with them. Their settings are often organized as participative and immersive modules. Thus the audience is included in a special way, which allows the collective to open up thought spaces, enlighten and access common discursive spaces for their subjects. It is an approach with which they enrich and advance documentary theater. The expert jury of the Fonds Darstellende Künste awards the Tabori Award 2021, endowed with 10,000 EUR, to Flinn Works. It is thus honoring the unique signature of this documentary research theater. The collective’s artistic works trigger strong reactions from the realm of politics, but also from the press and audiences; they draw attention to problems and abuses on a national and international level.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Thank you, for awarding us the Tabori Prize this year. We are very happy and we would be here with a lot more people, but because that isn’t possible in today’s day and age, we would like to thank our team and many collaborators. These would be Lisa Stepf Debarati Guha Lea Whitcher Andi Otto Jürgen Salzmann Susana Alonso Gijs Wisse Alexander Barta Tatjana Kautsch-

The partner companies in Tanzania and Ruanda

Isack Abeneko von Asedeva from Dar es Salam Wesley Ruzibiza and Louise Mutabazi of Amizero from Kigali Gabby Mzei Orio of the Old Moshi Cultural Tourism

Our indefatigable assistants: Alice Harrison

and Annekatrin Utke

And the chairwoman of Flinn Works e.V.: Renate Stepf

We would also like to thank our Indian colleagues, who are currently very much in our minds. These are: Vivek Madan Jehan Manekshaw Anuja Ghoshalkar Nimi Ravindran and Sandbox Collective Abhishek Thapar Shaizia Jifri and Shabari Rao.

The backbone of Flinn Works should also not be forgotten, namely the management and production management. This was Ehrliche Arbeit, freies Kulturbüro, back then Helena Tsi- flidis and currently Gustavo Fijalkow.

Many thanks also to the Sophiensæle team and the team at Theaterhaus Mitte, who have provided us with a home in Berlin over the course of the last eight years. And many thanks to the team of Dock 4, Kassel and the Kulturamt of the city of Kassel, without which Flinn Works would probably not exist. Thank you very much!

LIMOUSINE

Oh boy. I find it pretty difficult to imagine what it will be like when we leave this life of luxury behind. I mean, I just can’t imagine any more what it’s like to live in more than 7 square meters I mean, who would want that?

Well, for me it would be a relief. I prepared every meal for you.

Do you think that the world is any less cruel out there?

Let’s talk about it over a cup of coffee, ok? Sean, it’s your turn to make the coffee.

I’m going on strike! I’m obviously dressed up like a host and you are all my sidekicks. Do it yourself!

Don’t worry! I’ve got this covered with my personal „Express yourself Coffee Maker“. Who wants a nice Cappuccino Lungo Fortissimo… oh. You are never gonna believe what I found in this Kaffee Lungo Fortissimo Cappuccino maker.

Does it have something to do with George Clooney?

No but close.

Is it a gift certificate BlueManGroup?

No! Not close! It’s another golden envelope with the name of the next winner.

Hey! Give it to me, you already opened the last one.

The award is for the remarkable development of an autonomous aesthetic format. And the winner is…

Is it Gorge Clooney?

No, wait, I know. It’s the blue man’s group.

It’s Ligia Lewis.

TRAILER

It is surely more natural to conceive of darkness, being originally an idea of terror.

As apt as any. To fit the scene.

I spit on her happiness. I spit on it.

Huh, Gob Squad hello! Oh my God!

LAUDATIO

Ligia Lewis resolutely takes on subjects and aesthetics that come from the European and Western theater traditions and examines them with a Black and/or queer perspective. She thus creates completely unique experiences that are given a scenic presence through her unusual performative and visually inventive power. A special emphasis should be placed on the three works „Sorrow Swag” (2014), „minor matter” (2016) and „Water Will (in Melody)” (2018). It is a trilogy in which each work has an individual place, but because of each work’s lighting atmosphere (blue, red, black and white), it can be read as a triptych. Lewis’ gallery continues to develop with each work. But Ligia Lewis doesn’t just draw with colors; above all, she uses emotions. She unveils poetic

images in a unique way; they have a strong aesthetic signature and enrapture audiences in their aesthetic spell. The expert jury of the Fonds Darstellende Künste awards the Tabori Award 2021, endowed with 10,000 EUR, to Ligia Lewis. It is thus honoring an up-and-coming artist who has developed a new form of poetic choreography and performance with her special aesthetics.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

TEXT OF LIGIA WILL CHANGE

Oh! Gob Squad, hello! What a pleasant surprise. Oh my god, is that for me? That’s for me? It’s quite heavy. And beautiful. Thank you! The Tabori Prize. How unexpected. Oh my goodness. Umm, those are also for me? Oh my god, thank you. Well, umm, what to say? Umm, well I would like to firstly, uhh, thank all the incredible artists that I’ve gotten to work with in the last years.

You all have contributed so beautifully to these incredible projects that I’ve gotten to real- ize and I’m forever grateful.

I would also love to thank my community of friends and family that have also contributed incredible emotional support, without which an artistic project would otherwise not get realized. And I would also like to thank the HAU, who have also supported me on multiple projects. Particularly this last one, it had a soft premiere last weekend. Yeah, I’m forever grateful for their continued support and also for their support of live performance in general. And I would like to also say one more thing. I hope that this is not just a symbol but also a marker of change in the field, where diversity finally gets normalized. And not only for Berlin but for Germany and Europe and yeah. This is all very exciting. It’s beautiful, it’s heavy. It makes it feel more real. Thank you! I’m gonna go off to rehearsal now. Take care!

LIMOUSINE

Pass the crisps!

Pass the champagne, Simon. Pass the popcorn, Johanna.

And now: Wolfgang Schneider.

SPEECH WOLFGANG SCHNEIDER

Good evening everyone!

We are meeting, once again just digitally, but nonetheless – because there is something to celebrate: The independent performing arts! And especially those artists who are being awarded the Tabori Prize, endowed with 20,000 EUR, and the two Tabori Awards with 10,000 EUR each.

The pandemic still has a hold on the cultural landscape, and this continues to have existen- tial effects. This is why the Fonds Darstellende Künste is initiating one dozen support programs with funds from the State Minister for Culture and the Media precisely where artistic existences were and are being threatened.

The focus of the #TakeThat programs on theater and contemporary circus, on puppet theater and open-air stages as well as theater in the public sphere and theater for young adults, on production sites, networks and festivals all the way to projects for cultural pro- motion allow one to sense the widely discussed relevance of the arts in the system.

And in the process, the award winners make it particularly visible what theater and dance have to offer in their works and effects in all of their aesthetic ranges – once again and de- spite all challenges. This year’s prizewinners are on the road, nationally and internationally, and reflect the different creations in the independent performing arts.

The objective now is to set the course for future artistic work and the perspective of the independent performing arts. Defining positions in cultural politics is more necessary than ever, so that the pay is enough to live off of in the future and creativity is fully recognized as a system-relevant good. May the Tabori Prize contribute to this.

…as should the conceptual impulses from the Fonds to accompany processes of transfor- mation, for example in the form of demands after long-term support as a necessary and not voluntary responsibility of municipalities, structural reforms and a redistribution in the federal states as well as the realization of the right to cultural participation from the very beginning, for a lifetime.

I would like to thank everyone who has supported this: Professor Monika Grütters and her team at the BKM, the representatives of the German Bundestag who have been accompa- nying us. Thanks also to the member associations of the Fonds, the head office and the expert jury.

All the best to the prizewinners and I wish the rest of you a wonderful evening.

LIMOUSINE

According to my checklist, it is once again time for a new bottle of champagne. But only after the daily self-test.

Oh!

Sean, your test.

Is it like a pub quiz?

Sean, why don’t you remember anything?

What happens if you’re not negative?

Don’t you remember what happened to the rest of the collective?

Let’s focus on ourselves. Is it actually… I’m starting to like this now, this thing in my nose.

Mhh. Yes.

Even better when someone else …

Oh my god, you’re not gonna believe this!

Don’t tell me. Is it the ALDI own brand COVID Schnelltest contains the golden envelope?

Yes!

The name of the winner?

Yes!

Of this year’s Tabori Prize?

Yes, how did you know?

Sean, you found the envelope that contains the country’s highest award for the independent scene.

Yes, and it’s my turn to open it. Wait! We need to build some tension.

Yes, and we need to do that thing. You know when the US president leaves the White House, then they, the one that was in the White House writes a special note for their eyes only, giving them some special information. We need to explain how this luxury limousine of the independent scene works.

And the winner of the next occupant of the independent scene limousine is:

The winner of the Tabori Prize 2021 is:

Constanza Macras

Okay, let’s go!

TRAILER

Do you think you’re a good dancer? I’ll give you four.

We dance to be able to stay in our house.

Sometimes we as a society are just forced to deal with our shit together, just like a renters’ association in tenement housing.

My apartment is my palace!

LAUDATIO

When the Constanza Macras |Dorky Park company was founded in 2003, a completely new spirit entered into Berlin’s dance scene. The Argentinian choreographer and artistic director of the company, Constanza Macras, her dramaturge, Carmen Mehnert, and the international ensemble created a dance language that combined many different dance styles. They invited the audience to enter into different social and artistic spaces with them – mentally and physically – while vehemently asserting the social and political function of spaces for theater and dance.

The range of artistic works is clear when one reflects on the more than 25 company productions. In the course of almost 20 years since the collective’s founding, Constanza Macras with her international ensemble have developed an unusual artistic language that is unique and sets aesthetic standards. They combine the different arts in order to create inimitable images from song, dance, language and film that are repeatedly broken down with irony and thus generate a higher complexity. This has given the company an important voice with an international reach, which simultaneously operates on the interface between institutions and the independent performing arts; it demonstrates how this can actually function. The expert jury of the Fonds Darstellende Künste awards the Tabori Prize 2021, endowed with 20,000 EUR, to Constanza Macras |Dorky Park. It is thus honoring the artistic continuity of this company, which has been operating for many years. It has a unique, inimitable signature in its interdisciplinary and groundbreaking practice that sets aesthetic standards on an international level.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

There you are!

Thanks to the Fonds Darstellende Künste for this beautiful prize. Oh, flowers, amazing. Very nice. Thank you very much

Diamond life, lover boy. We move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy. City lights and business nights. When you require streetcar desire for higher heights. No place for beginners or sensitive hearts When sentiment is left to chance. No place to be ending but somewhere to start. No need to ask. He's a smooth operator, Smooth operator, Smooth operator, Smooth operator. Coast to coast, la to chicago, western male. Across the north and south, to key largo, love for sale.

CONSTANZA REDE:

First off, I would like to thank Fonds Darstellende Künste and the jury for this so special prize. I would like to thank so many people: Carmen Mehnert, whom I have have been working with since 2003 and who has worked as a dramaturge in almost all of our pieces, Sergio Pessanha in lighting design and Stephan Wöhrmann who has been doing our sound design since 2003.

Miki Shoji and Emil Bordás, with whom I have been working with for the last ten years, have been working with me on pieces and adaptations throughout the world.) To Fernanda Farah, Ana Mondini, Hyoung-Min Kim,Anouk Froidevaux, Johanna Lemke, Ronnie Maciel, Elik Niv, Alexandra Bódi, Candaş Bas, Chia-Ying Chiang, Fana Tshabalala, Thulani Mgidi, Mandla Mathonsi, Rob Fordeyn, Luc Guiol, Yuya Fujinami, Almut Lustig , Kristina Lösche-Löwensen, Robert Lippok, Santiago Blaum, (Maradona, Hassan, Lily, Lulu and Atura Akkouch), (Fatma, Ahmad and Assem El-Mustapha), Jared Gradinger, Jill Emerson, Rahel Savoldelli, Knut Berger, Angela Schubot, Gail Skrela, Yeri Anarika Vargas, Adaya Berkovich, Abdullah Damra, Tatiana and Tamara Saphir. (the city of Berlin and all institutions who have supported us in the last few years).

To our director ’s assistants, Marie Glassl, to the Dorky park producers and tour managers through the years, Chloe Ferro , Yu Xiao , Sarah Lipszyc, Alisa Golomzina, Mike Rabenhorst. Lucille Steinhilber, Helena Casas, Ricardo Frhaya , that made possible the impossible, got passports, visas, travel permission for mi- nors and lived the most complex touring situations.

I´ll proceed with this speech in English which is the language we use a lot in re- hearsals. We use English not because it is the one we prefer to talk, but because it is the most accessible. The way we speak it is our own English, one we create from misunderstandings, broken accents and the wish to communicate.

Dance is an international community.Dancers are immigrants by excellence. I am an Argentinian immigrant in Germany, the granddaughter of Greek and Italian immigrants in Argentina;in fact being an immigrant is a very common thing. My grandparents left Europe seeking for a better life. I grew up in the midst of their pro- gress and came back to Europe seeking to move forwards in my field. I soon realized that immigration didn’t seem that common to many others. In the process of experiencing that it became one of the biggest topics of our work . Our work was always big in Format ,engaging many performers but also live musi- cians , Visual artists Trough out all these years, performers came and went and many artists met through Dorky park and started to work together; many collaborations and new groups were born from those meetings who created a totally different work and en- grossed the cultural landscape .

We had times when we worked with many venues in the city and then we had times when we had none, nowhere in Berlin to show our work, and in those times the federal support played a big role: The Fonds Darstellende Künste supported us with Konzeptionsförderung which enabled us to produce and present performances in our own studio, the Goethe institute and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes allowed us to expand our horizons and collaborations trough Africa, South America and Asia where we had several co productions, found long term partnersIn those years, we worked in the woods, in museums like the Akademie der Künste, but we had premiers in Sweden, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg ...we never stoped . Obstacles become opportunities, but we had our back with these institutions that,opened the door to the world. Producing in other countries gives the chance to learn , listenand enlarge our network That organically brought us to expand , besidesproducing Dorky park’s pieces we co produce younger and older choreographers, cross disciplinary collaborations and all kinds of performance experimentations with artists from around the globe together Germany based artists professionals and non professionals . In all this years we saw the waves that artistic work brought in peoples life how it impacted their environment our environment .

A price for Dorky Park is a recognition for this way of working, of seeing the performance scene as part of a large universe of diversity and international collaborations that are made from all kinds of institutions who stand for an artistic continuity in the independent performing arts .

LIMOUSINE

So.

Here’s to the winners.

Congratulations.

All best!

Cheers.

And now we’re looking forward to Sabine Bangert’s speech.

Speech SABINE BANGERT

„Maybe the theater is the only homeland,“ George Tabori said in an interview, and currently we are experiencing how painful it is when our home is missing – at least in an ana- logue way. Online, we don’t need to forgo art and culture and I am very touched by the in- spiration, creativity and diversity of particularly independent artists as they have accompa- nied us through this crisis. They delight and enrich us with their magnificent artistic interventions. My dearest thanks for this. I would also like to thank the Fonds Darstellende Künste for the realization of the „Neustart Kultur“ program. It is so important! Dear professor Scheider, dear Holger Bergmann and team, dear expert jury of the Tabori Prize and above all dear prizewinners. And this year, they are: the Flinn Works company, the choreography, dancer and per- former Ligia Lewis, as well as Costanza Macras with her ensemble Dorky Park. My dearest congratulations. This highest federal honor in the independent performing arts values and honors your work: Constanza Marcras’ work, with its powerful pieces that holds up a criti- cal mirror to our society and thus regularly provides us with celebrations of dance art. It honors the work by Ligia Lewis, who realizes equally expressive and poetic choreogra- phies with maximum aesthetics in the areas of dance, theater and art. And it honors the work by Flinn Works, who intensely research for their artistic projects – often on site – and address feminist and postcolonial issues. What I am especially happy about: this year, women are being honored that are as wonderful as they are strong. Artists who think and work politically. However, we all know: there are many of these women in the field of the independent performing arts. This can- not belie the fact that women are still underrepresented in our society. Last year, Flinn

Works recommended that we learn from Ruanda. Its parliament has a percentage of women that we can only dream of here: 62%. I’m standing here at Berlin’s House of Repre- sentatives that has about 30% women. The same applies to the Bundestag. Completely un- satisfying. And the same applies to the field of art and culture. This doesn’t just apply to the lack of women’s representation in leadership positions, in dramaturgy and direct- ing… no, it applies equally to structural discrimination, racism, the misuse of power and mi- sogyny. In addition, we still have a grave gender pay gap. So there is still plenty to do in order to change culture and attitudes in a positive way. Let us continue to work on this together to improve the situation sustainably, structurally and financially. Thank you and again, my deepest congratulations to the prizewinners.

Come on, let’s get out of here. Make some room! For Constanza.

It’s the end of an era.

It is. Oh, I will be blinded by the lights.

Come on, let’s go.

Come on, let’s make some room.

Constanza Macras.

Actually gonna take this. Actually does belong to me.

Oh!

Come on, get out!

Shall we leave the bee pops for Constanza?

Oh!

SEND-OFF HOLGER BERGMANN

Dear Dorky Park, dear Constanza, dear Flinn Works, dear Ligia, also from me: CONGRATULATIONS and a big thank you to everyone in front of and behind the camera who conceived, organized and facilitated this awards ceremony.

And now, I can – as announced – invite you to our digital after-show party. Follow the link below and come along to the digital HAU 1, where the prizewinners are on stage. You can congratulate them there; you can meet artists and friends in the Fuchsfoyer and there is all kinds of information available about the Tabori Prize.

TakeHeart

See you soon!