Kick-Off-Labor „Mein Freund der Baum ist…“

In the week of 14-19 March 2023, the Orangery Theatre will host a research week as part of the Sustainability Cycle 4Life Part1: Earth "LE CRI" (UA) with a rich programme of lectures, talks, panels, workshops and an exhibition around the topic of trees and forests.

Patron: Barbara Foerster

Program:

14.03.2023 (Ticket 15 / 10)
19:00 Opening
19:30 "Forest in a glass" lecture and guided garden-herb tour (Andrea Durry)
20:00 "The tree in the urban environment" Impulse (Sven Berkowicz, specialist agronomist for tree care and tree renovation)
           "The tree and its rights" Lecture (Laurenz Leky, actor and wilderness educator)
           followed by a panel with Sven Berkowicz, Andrea Durry and Laurenz Leky

15.03.2023 (Ticket 15 / 10)
19:00 Photo exhibition "REVIER" - Opening and lecture with photographer Matthias Jung.
20:00 Excerpt from "LE CRI - Sterbebegleitung eines Baumes" (premiere in May 2023), audio version by Sibin Vassilev
20:15 "Why save the forest" lecture (Michael Zobel, nature guide and forest educator) &
           "Politics and the forest - you can't see the forest for the trees" Lecture (Holger Sticht, BUND)
           followed by a panel moderated by Dorothea Marcus (journalist & urban gardening activist)

16. und 17.03.2023 (Ticket 19 / 12)
20:00 Uhr FRACTURA – Dance theatre about injuries and ageing with Bibiana Jiménez
                  followed by discussion: "Sustainability and social fabric

18.03.2023 (Workshop 25 € | Menu (incl. 1 dring and the following concert) 45,00€ | concert 10,00 €)
15:00 Workshop "Trees and shrubs in the kitchen" (Andrea Durry)
18:30 3-course forest menu (Markus Kremer: Sir Otto Risotto)
20:00 Concert RAUMZEITBAUM (Dunkelwellen, Kai Niggemann and Conni Trieder) &
           Live broadcast on radio 674.fm

19.03.2023 (entry: 3,00€ (under 16 free) | Workshop: natur colour print 20,00€ | Body Oil & Bath Salts 25,00€)
14:00-18:00    Plant Textile Market
14.30 & 16.00 Workshop Body Oil & Bath Salts with the Wild Herb Shop
16.00               Guided tour through the Orangery garden with Lore Müller
                         Workshop: Natural colour printing with Paula Noller

WEHR51 invites you to witness the research process that precedes all works and that the audience does not otherwise experience. Not only watching, but also participating is possible. Questions and opinions, participation and exchange are the goal of the week, which will unfold around the expertise of the invited experts.
WEHR51 will artistically transform the collected impressions and information and show the first part of the 4-part sustainability cycle "4Life" from 9 to 23 May 2023, as part of the Sommerblut cultural festival. To Part1: Earth "LE CRI" (UA), an oak tree will be laid out in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and integrated into an artistic-craft transformation process.

With this laboratory, WEHR51, together with its partners, the Sommerblut Kulturfestival, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and the Orangerie Theater, is launching its four-year series "4Life" on the relationship between humans and nature. In long duration performances, each episode is dedicated to one of the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. In 2023, the focus is on the tree as a representative of the earth. In 2024, the WEHR51 and the Orangerie Theater will focus on water, an element that is in danger of losing its mythical power today.

"4Life" is a series that aims to sensitise people to the great interrelationships and the role of human beings in these relationships, but which also conveys knowledge in a sensual way. The aim of this cycle is to question the way we deal with other elements and living beings, our environment and the earth, and to create a reflection on a possible scenario for future coexistence.
Starting with the element "earth", the rights of trees and plants and the political dimensions will be discussed in the lab week together with experts, activists and artists. The photo exhibition "Revier" by Matthias Jung visualises the tensions between economic exploitation and the defence of life. Furthermore, culinary tree-herb delights will be explored in workshops, oil and natural colour prints will be made from plants. A plant-textile market and a concert round off the week.

Patron: Barbara Foerster (Head of the Cultural Office Cologne).
Concept: Andrea Bleikamp, Rosi Ulrich | With: Sven Berkowicz, Andrea Durry, Wildkräuterei, Matthias Jung, Laurenz Leky, Dorothea Marcus, Lore Müller, Paula Noller, Jens Standke, Holger Sticht (BUND), Sibin Vassilev, Michael Zobel, Markus Kremer: Sir Otto Risotto, Jan Kutscher, Tobias Zimmermann. | Photo: Jens Standke

Patron Barbara Foerster

(c) Phillip Treudt

Barbara Foerster is an art historian and has headed the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne since the beginning of 2014. She teaches at the Institute for Art and Art Theory as a lecturer for artistic-media practice at the University of Cologne. Her focus is on art in public space. Barbara Foerster is particularly interested in art in public space and projects on the subject of cultural urban development, as these seek direct contact with the public and balance the boundaries of what is artistically acceptable and thus discuss urban society issues. 
Before joining the City of Cologne as a scientific officer for visual arts, film and literature, she worked for many years as an art critic. She was an editor in the culture department of the Mannheimer Morgen for five years and wrote for Kunstforum International, the art market of the Handelsblatt, etc. As an editor, she also helped to set up the art history worksheets of the Deubner Verlag between 1999 and 2001. Barbara Foerster studied art history and philosophy at the University of Cologne and in Münster, Rome and Perugia.

14 MARCH 2023 - RIGHTS

7:00 - 11:00 pm The theme of the first day is: "The tree in the urban environment".

How do we live together with nature? What rights do we grant to trees?



7:00 pm Opening with welcome natural drink



7:15 pm "Forest in a jar" lecture and guided garden-herb tour (Andrea Durry, Wild Herb Nursery).


Andrea Durry grew up in a small village in the Eifel and as a child spent a lot of time in the forest, on meadows and on the farm of a family friend. She went plant collecting with her grandmother and helped with the processing.
 Later, she moved to Cologne to study and during long walks in the city forest, she noticed that the trees and herbs were the same as those in the countryside. Today, she passes on her knowledge about trees and herbs as well as their processing to interested lay people.



8:00 pm "The tree in the urban environment" Impulse (Sven Berkowicz, specialist agronomist for tree care and tree renovation)

Sven Berkowicz is team leader of the tree and garden care team of ASG (Antoniter Siedlungsgesellschaft). He is committed to climate and species protection and plans so-called "renaturation areas" in the urban environment, where he plants trees, shrubs and wildflowers, and creates watering holes and deadwood patches as habitats for insects and other animals. 
By installing bat boxes on house facades and in trees, the endangered bats should also find a new habitat. Sven Berkowicz: "The flowers and trees also create a climate for bats, because the insects are at the same time food for bats and the bees provide fertilisation for plants. 
Normally we are called when it comes to gardening, tree care and also tree felling. Of course, I always try to show clients alternatives to felling first, especially when the tree shows no damage."


8:30 pm "The tree and its rights" Lecture (Laurenz Leky, actor and wilderness educator)

Laurenz Leky is an actor, theatre director, author and enthusiastic biologist. With an inexhaustible knowledge of the interrelationships in nature, he introduces the relationships of arboreal life, playfully, with a sensational wealth of experience and a gripping narrative. A journey that arouses curiosity about the diversity of the biotope "tree".
 After studying acting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he worked at the Theater der Jungen Welt Leipzig, the Theater Osnabrück and the Schauspiel Frankfurt, among others.
 He completed a Master's degree in Conflict Resolution at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford (UK), and worked for three months in the crisis area in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the field of theatre as a means of conflict transformation. Together with Jan-Christoph Gockel and Nina Gühlstorff, he subsequently worked on the monologues Kongo-Müller and koNGOland at the Theater Rampe in Stuttgart. Together with Caritas in Osnabrück and Novosibirsk, Leky organises a summer camp once a year for Russian young people from difficult family backgrounds in the Caucasus or the Siberian Altaj Mountains.
 Leky regularly participates in performances and films by the action artist John Bock and is an ensemble member of the company Peaches&Rooster by Jan-Christoph Gockel and Michael Pietsch (including Coltan-Fieber, 2014 Burkina Faso, COLTAN-FIEBER: CONNECTING PEOPLE, documentary film).
 Since the 2016/2017 season, he has been directing the Theater im Bauturm in Cologne together with Bernd Schlenkrich and René Michaelsen, where he also regularly appears on stage.



9:00 pm Panel with Sven Berkowicz, Andrea Durry and Laurenz Leky, Moderation: Andrea Bleikamp & Rosi Ulrich

15 MARCH 2023 - RESISTANCE

7:00 - 11:00 pm The second day will focus on the importance of forests in politics and society.



7:00 pm Opening of the photo exhibition "REVIER" with a lecture by photographer Matthias Jung.

Under the impression of the environmental destruction and forced resettlement policy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the mining energy company, Matthias Jung began his work on the photo series "Revier" more than 10 years ago.
 Lignite has been mined industrially west of Cologne since the end of the 19th century.
 After the end of the Second World War, villages and small towns began to be destroyed.
 More than 45,000 people were resettled. With the occupation of the Hambach Forest in April 2012, an organised and long-lived climate protection and resistance movement emerged that was also able to influence political decisions.
 Lützerath and "Hambi" have become a symbol of climate-threatening and landscape-destroying environmental policies.
 "Revier" is a long-term observation of destruction and resistance.

Matthias Jung, born in 1967 in Herford, began taking photographs for East Westphalian daily newspapers at the age of 17 and has worked as a photojournalist ever since. After studying photography in Essen, he went to Cologne, later moving to nearby Lechenich. At night here, from his new office window, he saw the lights of the Hambach open-cast mine on the horizon.
 In 2010, he took his first photos in areas that have since disappeared into the crater of the opencast mines. Since then, it has developed into a long-term project whose end is not yet in sight.
 Matthias Jung himself has been struggling with the question of the appropriateness of his pictures since the beginning of the work. How much beauty can the subject tolerate? Can the aesthetics he tends towards even begin to describe the apocalyptic situation in which landscape and people find themselves? It is a search for the interface between documentation and emotionality and the question of what remains.

Books by Matthias Jung: 10 - 10 Jahre Hambacher Wald , Ehling, Thekla u.a. [eds] / Kettler Verl, 2022 - 220 p. 978-3-86206-986-6, 28,00 € ,
Revier, Jung, Matthias [ed.] / Kettler Verl., 2022 - 148 p.
978-3-86206-969-9, 42,00 €

8:00 pm Excerpt from "LE CRI - Mortal Accompaniment of a Tree" (premiere in May 2023)
An excerpt from "LE CRI", a radio piece for a speaker and four tree choirs, which will be premiered in May at the long duration performance "4Life - Teil1: Earth" at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum for its world premiere.

Text: Rosi Ulrich / composition, sound design: Sibin Vassilev / speakers: Kai Hufnagel, Katya Tasheva, Mareile Metzner, Sibin Vassilev.

8:15 pm "Why save the forest" lecture (Michael Zobel, nature guide and forest educator).

Michael Zobel is committed to the preservation of the Hambach Forest. "After a career path that was not always straightforward, I have now been out and about in the forest and in nature almost "round the clock" for 20 years, following an apprenticeship at Haus Ternell. Around Aachen, in the border triangle, in the Euregio, in the High Fens. With every conceivable group, from kindergartens to secondary schools, from company outings to institutions for the disabled, from bio-performance courses to family outings, from children's birthdays to anniversaries. At almost any time of day, from sunrise to dusk and night walks. In addition, there are other themes such as LandArt, art in and with nature, further education, holiday games, thematic guided tours of all kinds. And the programme is constantly being supplemented and updated.
"

"Politics and the Forest - You Can't See the Forest for the Trees" Lecture (Holger Sticht, BUND)
Holger Sticht has been Chairman of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland, Landesverband NRW, since 2013. BUND is one of the largest environmental associations in Germany. Sticht is the recipient of the Rheinlandtaler, the MUNA environmental award and works, among other things, as an author, freelance lecturer and project manager in protected areas managed by BUND. He has contributed to BUND NRW publications on the topic of forests, such as the "Cornerstones for a Masterplan Waldwende NRW".

followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dorothea Marcus.
Dorothea Marcus: is a cultural journalist, radio reporter, lecturer, and moderator. "I have been a cultural journalist for over twenty years, primarily a theatre critic. I am convinced that theatre is the democratic, discursive art form of the future: a place where community gathers to reflect, discuss - and ideally improve - issues of the present.
 Nothing is more inspiring to me than the collective experience of thought in the theatre and the exchange of ideas about it. The more political, perception-expanding and diverse - the better. That's why I'm particularly interested in forms of political theatre and those formats that point beyond theatre: Interfaces with performance, visual arts, film, literature.
 The change of perspective that theatre makes possible is also important to me. Therefore, one of my most important work topics is all forms and pitfalls of intercultural exchange. I was able to study them on theatre trips that took me to Burkina Faso, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Israel and Turkey, among other places.
 I have lived in Cologne since 2005 and write, present, teach writing and above all believe that art broadens horizons, inspires and brings people together.
In my spare time, I secretly green gravelled front gardens in Cologne city centre and am currently founding a cooperative supermarket for local products in Cologne with others.

16 & 17 MARCH 2023 - SOCIAL

8:00 - 8:30 pm The third and fourth days will focus on people and sustainability.
What is the value of people and how is it measured?


In this context, the WEHR51:

8.00 pm FRACTURA - dance theatre about injuries and ageing with Bibiana Jiménez
followed by a discussion on the social components of sustainability
How sustainably do we treat people in our society?

(c) Herand Müller Scholtes

18 MARCH 2023 - ENJOYMENT

3:00 - 11:00 pm Day five is dedicated entirely to pleasure and the senses.
 

All parts of this day can be booked and attended individually.



3:00 p.m. Workshop "Trees and Shrubs in the Kitchen" (led by Andrea Durry, Wildkräuterei).
During a guided tour through the Volksgarten, the culinary richness of the park will be discovered, then herbs will be collected in the garden of the Orangerie Theatre and processed into culinary dishes in the workshop. There is much to learn about native plants and their processing.
Wildkräuterei: "Come with us into the unspoilt world of wild herbs. In the middle of Cologne. In the middle of the big city. In our workshops for adults and families, we let our participants experience nature in a new way. We process wild plants and the result of our cooking courses are healthy, simple, very wild dishes with surprising flavours.
 For thousands of years our ancestors collected herbs and wild plants. They knew how to use the biological diversity. Wild herbs were always food and medicine at the same time. The knowledge about the appearance, taste and effect of each individual plant was passed down from generation to generation. Modern food production has displaced this knowledge of edible and medicinal wild herbs. However, it can be rediscovered and used in a modern way! Looking for wild herbs, picking them and then preparing the herbs brings us closer to nature again."

6:30 pm Three-course forest menu (Markus Kremer: Sir Otto Risotto)  .
The menu combines insights from the afternoon workshop with cooking and the unfamiliar flavours from the forest - a treat for the palate with entertainment value.

8:00 pm Concert RAUMZEITBAUM Dunkelwellen (aka Kai Niggemann and Conni Trieder)
8.00 pm Live broadcast of the concert on Radio 674.fm
 

Dunkelwellen (aka Kai Niggemann - Buchla 200e Electic Music Box and Connie Trieder - flute and fx) . "When I think of electronic music, I think of a child secretly listening to contributions by Stockhausen on the radio under the covers at night. There is something incomprehensible, uncanny about this music, which makes it attractive. I also associate old science fiction films, outer space and especially the silver colour with the early electronic compositions - there is something fantastic and incomprehensible in these things too; I find it hard to see their depth because it reflects the light.When I improvise with Kai, intergalactic sound worlds also form. Dark viscous waves criss-cross the space, temporarily obscuring small sound motifs galloping along the horizon. Abruptly, a ray of light cuts through the darkness, strange beings crawl and weave a web of pearls that builds up into a dome over a long period of time. My flute forms the link to our realities and blurs from time to time, shifting between dimensions.

Electronic music is an intimate music that is best done on a small scale and yet, if you close your eyes, can open up huge spaces. Or you can keep your eyes open and watch the performers' hands. Everything is improvised and the sounds only emerge at the moment of the concert, so you can follow the developments there too.
 In the case of the flute and Buchla, it's particularly nice that the sounds sometimes converge in such a way that the boundaries between the instruments become blurred, even between analogue and electronically generated sounds."
Radio 674.fm is an internet radio station in Cologne. - One City under a Groove.
From ambient to Zollstock, from dubstep to Deutz, from Ehrenfeld to experimental, from Fühlingen to funk, from Porz to punk, from Raderthal to rap, from Sülz to soul..... 674FM represents a multi-faceted cross-section of Cologne club, bar and living room sounds. Since 2013, we have been streaming around the clock from our studio, clubs and basements. More than fifty Cologne DJs, artists and radio producers present "their music" on 674FM - the sound that drives them, gives them energy, sweetens the day, enchants the night. We are commercially independent, which gives us the space to create an individual programme according to our own ideas.

19 MARCH 2023 - MARKET

2:00 to 6:00 pm Plant and textile market on the grounds of the Orangery Theatre and wokshops.

2.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Body oil & bath salts workshop (Wildkräuterei).
Wildkräuterei: "Come with us into the unspoilt world of wild herbs. In the middle of Cologne. In the middle of the city. In our workshops for adults and families, we let our participants experience nature in a new way. We process wild plants and the result of our cooking courses are healthy, simple, very wild dishes with surprising flavours.
 For thousands of years our ancestors collected herbs and wild plants. They knew how to use the biological diversity. Wild herbs were always food and medicine at the same time. The knowledge about the appearance, taste and effect of each individual plant was passed down from generation to generation. Modern food production has displaced this knowledge of edible and medicinal wild herbs. However, it can be rediscovered and used in a modern way! Looking for wild herbs, picking them and then preparing the herbs brings us closer to nature again."

3.00 pm Natural colour printing with Paula Noller
Paula Noller works in the field of costume-textile creation, set design. She completed her apprenticeship as a clothing technical assistant in 2018 and studied Bachelor Design Engineer with a focus on fashion at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. The degree combines the creative skills of design with the technical know-how of garment/textile production. She gained her first experience in the theatre since 2018 during a costume assistance in the play Die Psychonauten: Ashes. This was followed in 2019 by costume design for the production Singletreff at the Volksbühne Berlin, and in 2020 for the children's theatre Besuch im Druntenunten. For WEHR51, she was involved in the production Trans-S, VIRTUAL BRAIN and FRACTURA, among others, in the areas of costume, stage and make-up design.

4.00 pm Guided tour through the garden of the Orangery Theatre (Lore Müller)
The tour clearly shows the connections between: healthy soil - healthy plants / recognising and dealing with needs / dealing with trees and their needs / plants help plants / it also works without poisons / try something - experiment / always stay on the ball with care / very important, write everything down!
Lore Müller: "I am a self-employed trainer and garden mentor. For many years I have been looking after the garden of the Orangerie Theatre, a historic site. As a child, I became aware of the positive effects of nature. Whenever I felt distressed, I would take refuge in our large natural garden or in the greenhouse of our village gardener. After a while, all sorrow was forgotten. I try to convey this feeling of lightness to the customers/clients in my work - with great success."