Landscapes and Bodies

Water & Coltan is presented in a large scale performance parcours combining live performances and 360° documentary films. Visiting the parcours takes 108 minutes and can be visited by up to 5 visitors per time slot (entrance every 10 minutes).

Oil Shale consists of a large film and space installation, a book to read, and a concert by Estonian Industrial Band KEETAI.

The tickets for the time slots of Water & Coltan are also valid for the Oil Shale installation on all days and the concert by KEETAI on Saturday, September 10^th at 9.30pm.

Oil Shale installation (ongoing):
September 8^th and 9^th: 15.00h - 23.30h
September 10^th: 12.30h - 23.30h

Oil Shale concert feat. KEETAI:
September 10^th at 21.30h

Water & Coltan
September 8^th and 9^th
starting times:
17.00h - 17.50h // entry in groups of 5 every 10 minutes
19.00h - 20.50h // entry in groups of 5 every 10 min

September 10^th
starting times:
14.00h - 15.50h // entry in groups of 5 every 10 min  
17.30h - 19.20h // entry in groups of 5 every 10 min

Water & Coltan

deals with the consequences of mining on landscape and communities in West Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the 600 pumps have stopped in the former german coal mining area around Ruhr river the living environment of 15 million people has been flooded and depopulated. Only a distant perspective on these german post-human mining landscapes allows to imagine a future for our planet. Water & Coltan transports its audience directly to the places of the struggle of women in artisanal mining camps in South Kivu in DR Congo. There Colombit Tantalit (Coltan), named after the ancient Greek Tantalus story, is extracted, the resource needed for all our mobile phones, jet engines and VR glasses.

Based on a shared research of the filmmaker Daniel Kötter with the Congolese social worker Yasmine Bisimwa, lawyer Olande Byamungu and engineer Christian Muhighwa, also featuring as live performers in the piece, the immersive and performative experience makes you walk through a parcours of 12 container rooms, where the audience takes on the role of the travellers themselves, encountering german and congolese landscapes and its people. We learn how western forms of extractivism, supply chain capitalism and genocide are deeply intertwined with our every day life.

With: Christian Chokola Muhigwa, Yasmine Mugoli Bisimwa, Olande Emerance Byamungu I Film: Daniel Kötter I Set Design: Elisa Limberg I Dramaturgy: Anna PtakI Artistic production assistance: Melanie Albrecht I Sound Design: Marcin Lenarczyk I Sound Design and Technical Direction: Martin Recker and Paul Hauptmeier | Production: ehrliche arbeit – freelance office for culture.

A production by Kötter/Israel/Limberg in Co Production with Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, PACT Zollverein Essen and KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen.Funded by the Doppelpass Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Kunststiftung NRW. With support from the International Coproduction Fund of the Goethe Institut and the Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

Oil Shale

guides its audience to one of the locations where the future of Europe is at stake. The economic and social impact of Oil Shale mining at the border between EU and Russia, Eastern Virumaa, Estoniam, has dramatically changed several times in history in the course of political turmoil, war and the drawing of borders. The film and space installation reiterates these changes by incorporating interviews with the inhabitants of the Eastern Virumaa mining region representing different generations, walks of life and occupations, and is combined with a concert by the Russian-Estonian industrial rock band KEETAI. “This is no longer the Soviet Union, but it is still a union, isn’t it?”

Music: KEETAI I Film: Daniel Kötter I Set Design: Elisa Limberg I Dramaturgy: Anna Ptak I Sound Design Film and Technical Direction: Martin Recker and Paul Hauptmeier | Color Grading Film: wave-line GmbH Berlin | Production Estonia: Tiiu Tamm/Priit Orav | Sound Recording Estonia: Rein Fuks, Tanel Kadalipp | Translations: Anastassia Kolessova, Anna-Maria Kolessova | Production: ehrliche arbeit – freelance office for culture.

Special thanks to Anu Printsman, Kristiina Reidolv, Inga Koppel, Madli Pesti, Aleksei Ivanov

A production by Kötter/Israel/Limberg co-produced by Kunstfest Weimar. Supportedby Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. With support from Tartu Centre for Creative Industries, Tartu City Government, Goethe Institut Estonia, British Council and Performa Borealis Festival.