dancing for plants next to a German supermarket,
Agora, Neukölln 2018

Choreography and performance by
Kai Merke
Camila Malenchini
Camilla Lind
Katrine Staub Larsen

Music
the hanging plant on the wall via an electrical device

Video
Katrine Staub Larsen

Documentation of The Wormhole presented July 11th 2018
at Uferstudios Berlin in the context of MA SODA HZT/UDK
with support of Fundação GDA and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

The wormhole is a an ongoing project bringing together a mixture of videos,
plastic toys and a worm who navigates through space and time spreading bits
and pieces of a broken performance. It began with an intestine inhabited by
pinworms and developed into a practice of parasitizing the interstices of
performative locations and gatherings where the worm invites itself into,
echoing traces of that good old song: “I'm a worm... I'm a weirdo...”

Concept: Mariana Nobre Viera
Research Collaborators: Carrie McILwain, Lara Anais Martinez Wisselmann,
Kiana Rezvani, Egan Chan, Paul Wiersbinski, Kai Merke, Karine Staub Larsen, Evgenia Chetverkova, Bernardo Chatillon, Judith Förster, Pedro Marum
Mentors: Sophia New, Florian Feigl; Tutors Diego Agulló,
Silke Baker, Rhys; Martin.
Many extra thanks to: SODA 2, SODA 1, Maria F. Scaroni, Rabbit Hole, Violeta Lisboa, Pauline Payen, Nikola Pieper and the pinworms that live(d) in my guts.

Filming: Hikaru Suzuki
Editing: Joana Sousa

The Wormhole as of April 2018
First iteration of The Wormhole done in the context of MA SODA HZT/UDK Berlin in April 2018.

Concept: Mariana Nobre Vieira
Performance: Katrine Staub Larsen, Mariana Nobre Vieira,
Kai Merke, Bernardo Chatillon
Video: Paul Wiersbinski

Baby don't hurt me
Concept: Hanna Kritten Tangsoo
Performance: Grete Smitaite, Sigrid Savi, Kai Merke,
Suvi Kemppainen, Judith Förster, Simone Gisela Weber, Carrie McIlwain
at Uferstudios studio 14, Berlin 2016

BAND or Coast Companions Rehearsal Footage (2017),
10times10 in Ada Studios
and performance in studio 14, Uferstudios

The Hero is dead so instead
we turn towards risky and generative tales
of pollinators searching for e-(co)spots,
fungus foxes and stories from the arts of living and dying on a damaged planet
String figurings of weaving voices and bleached coral reefs are companions
in melting merging landscapes.
Muddy creepy critters crawling into symbiotic dances in dusk and dawn

Kai Merke, Jonas Wentritt, Judith Förster

The Machine of Grace,
Uferstudios 8 and surrounding area, 2017

Concept and performance:
Alejandro Karasik and Kai Merke
Set design and costume: Kai Merke
Camera: Ailin Formia

S or 8
Concept: Xenia Taniko Dwertmann
In collaboration with:
Lyllie Rouviere, Josephine Mühle, Eugeniu Salinschi, Renen Itzhaki, Roni Katz and Kai Merke
at P-bodies festival, Leipzig 2017, 3AM
Am Flutgraben, Berlin 2017
Het Veem Theater, Amsterdam 2016 Uferstudios studio 14, Berlin 2016
Fuchsbau Festival, Lehrte 2019

‘show’
by Okka-Esther Hungerbüehler, Anton Halla, Hrefna Hörn Leifsdóttir, Rachel de Joode, Laura Katzauer, Miranda Keyes,
Nina Kettiger, Miriam Kongstad, Lukas Kostiera, Anastasio Mandel, Paul Niedermayer and Ernest, Niclas Riepshoff, Grazyna Roguski, Sarah Rosengarten, Kat Schneider, Hanna Stiegler, Gianna Surangkanjanajai, Helena Tan, Frederik Worm, Michaela Zimmer, Annie Åkerman.

Kai Merke performing at Ku’damm Karrée Kurfürstendamm 206, Berlin 2018

parts of 'sirens'
Concept: Anna Fitoussi
In collaboration with:
Magdalena Meindl, Yrsa heijkenskjöld, Judith Förster, Olivia McGregor, Lyllie Rouvière, Kai Merke, Maja Avnat
Uferstudios, Berlin 2017

UUUH
a mermaid concert

Concept and performance: Kai Merke and Anna Fitoussi
Hamam Berlin 2019

UUUH is a contemporary storytelling about the mythical figure of the siren.
Come dwell with us at the bottom of the sea where we sing through past lives and call to liquify each other from within until we melt even further down where we no longer see as much as we hear.
We listen to re-member voices, to call for something in search of what we lost, revealing the songs trapped in our tissues and bones.
What does the body tell when we give it a voice?

Newly composed opera performance at Glyptoteket based on Mette Moestrup's version of Sappho from Lesbos (ca. 630 BC). With music by Matilde Böcher and choreography by Jules Fischer.

Tickets still available: https://www.operafestival.dk/en/dryppende-stof