On the last day of the exhibition “Land and Soil”, this performance by artist JP Raether takes a coach to the edge of the Hambach open-cast lignite mine, the largest open-cast mine in Europe. This site of ongoing conflict between the exploitation of fossil resources and resistance to it becomes the stage set for a travelling lecture performance about coal, climate change, heat, entropy and artificial life.

The audience is connected to the tour guide via headphones for four hours. The guide is Asche Lützerathi, one of several so-called “artificial beings” that JP Raether transforms into during performances. Asche Lützerathi is named after the cleared protest camp Lützerath at the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine. Photos and relics from a performance by Asche Lützerathi there are exhibited in “Land and Soil”.

Some of these exhibits are taken by the artist at the beginning of the performance and carried along on the journey. “Care sticks” distributed to the participants make them active contributors to a community of care that allows Asche Lützerathi to appear in this world for six hours. In the artist's words: “We become ‘negentropically accelerated’ and ‘psycho-realistically waking dreamers’ – a group expanded and transformed by language. We walk with Asche Lützerathi along excavated country roads, past the airport, tunnel and petrol station, over the freshly sedimented earth wall of the motorway.”

The journey makes climate change tangible on our doorstep. It leads from K21 via Düsseldorf Airport and a motorway service station to the Rhineland mining area, which is set to transform from a coal mining region into a digital region with server centres for artificial intelligence in the near future. “Where planetary processes come into close proximity,” says JP Raether, “the ashen becomes a resonance chamber for a shared, precarious future.”

Ticket: 26 € / Discounted Ticket: 19 €
(More information, see “reductions”: https://www.kunstsammlung.de/en/visit/#tickets)

The performance will be held in English.

Schedule:
11.30 am Check-in at K21
12 pm Start of the Performance
1 pm  Bus Departure
approx. 4.15 pm arrival at K21

About the artist:
JP Raether explores alternatives to capitalist models of subject and action with so-called ‘swarm beings’ or ‘aLivfeforms.’ He heads the newly established Live Art Forms performance programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg.

Requirements for participation:
Sturdy footwear and outdoor clothing
Please bring your own food and drink
Minors are only permitted if accompanied by an adult
The event is not wheelchair accessible
If you leave the event early, you are responsible for your own return journey

Booking information:
Tickets are personal and non-transferable
Bookings are limited to 1 ticket
Please provide your name, address and telephone number when booking
Proof of eligibility for a discount must be presented at the ticket office on the day of the event

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Date:
Sunday, April 19, 11.30 am

Anmeldung erforderlich.