Loss and new beginnings
Scenic reading “Torn Worlds – Kaleidoscope of Memories” with Franziska Jacobi and Agnès Arp
- Geisa, Germany
- April 6, 2024
The scenic reading “Entrissene Welten – Kaleidoskop der Erinnerungen” (“Torn Worlds – Kaleidoscope of Memories”) presented itself in an emotional and extraordinary way these days in the Simplicuskeller at Geisa Castle. The event, jointly organized by the Point Alpha Research Institute (PARI) and the town of Geisa, combined stories about home, the loss of home and the reorientation of three generations from the 1960s to the present day. Agnés Arp from the University of Erfurt welcomed numerous interested people on behalf of the organizers.
Deep insights into personal memories
The reading gave visitors a deep insight into a wide range of experiences about home, loss and new beginnings. Both childhood experiences in turbulent times and the striving for a better life in a world of disorientation then and now were addressed. With extraordinary choreography and narrative interludes, the author and performer Franziska Jakobi worked through her own family history in this piece. Her ancestors came from Motzlar in Thuringia, a former restricted area, and were forcibly evacuated by the GDR regime in the 1960s. She herself grew up in what she described as a disoriented East Germany in the 1990s before moving to Hamburg in 2015
Interwoven Connections
The distance she gained there enabled her to better understand many things. With the beginning of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and through Ukrainian and Russian friendships in the Hanseatic city, the links between past and present became particularly clear to her and common levels of understanding became visible, even between the generations. The staged reading skillfully and expressively portrayed the recurring cycle of security, loss and reorientation in the power system of East and West. Together with the musician and actor Mikhail Poliakov and the choreographer and dancer Finja Kelpe, Franziska Jakobi succeeded in presenting new perspectives on the evening. Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach, even the unspeakable was brought to the stage and expressed in various forms of performance. Further stories by refugees and emigrated cultural workers from Ukraine and Russia revealed emotional cross-connections between the individual events across the generations. Emotional and extraordinary, the performers of the evening offered a fascinating theatrical picture of East-West history since 1952 by linking personal and local memories with historical references. Afterwards, there was an intensive exchange with guests and contemporary witnesses, moderated by Agnès Arp.
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More InformationMore information about the performance on the artist’s website: