REH Kunst

2 Acts is a performance-based exhibition in two acts that are related in terms of form and content and constitute a first and a second act. After Gasium et Circenses by Katarina Šević und Tehnica Schweiz (Gergely László & Péter Rákosi) REH Kunst is now pleased to present the second act: the live performance The Loser (Version 2) directed by Hungarian artist Hajnal Németh on Wednesday, 5th June. Afterwards an installation of the left stage settings and props, as well as a video installation of the performance will be on view until the 15th June. In an opera-like vocal enactment of confessions, a politician and a banker are engaged in a Faustian dialogue with their own conscience, discussing their fascination of power, their initial enthusiasm, their beliefs and the loss of it, and the question of responsibility. The whole room at REH Kunst becomes an abstract-minimalistic stage which frames the talk between the power persons and their consciences. Characteristic for Hajnal Németh’s practice, this piece also moves on the border between different genres. The singers are placed like sculptures on the stage – as tableaux vivants – underlining the crossover between music and visual arts. The exchange between the banker and the politician is accompanied by a choir, which alternately embody citizens or revolutionaries – rotating between comfort and consternation, trust and distrust. The struggles and experiences of the protagonists are different but address the same problems nonetheless. In focus are the figure of the loser and the subject of losing. What are the consequences of personal failures, or of collective failures? How do we react to the loss of power, money or morale? On the stage, self-delusion and the contrasts between concepts of individual and societal sense of responsibility are disclosed. Through the opera-like staging, the permanence of these themes is underlined – regardless of the currentness of the financial- and euro-crisis. Hajnal Németh’s texts are recited by Tobias Müller-Kopp, Kristin Schulze and the Jazz-Choir Berlin Vokal under the artistic direction of Michael Betzner Brandt. All texts are in English and will be projected as surtitles in German and English. In 2012, the first version of The Loser was performed at the Balassi Institut, with the large window panorama of Berlin as backdrop to the performance. In this second version at REH Kunst, the performance has been altered to fit the special circumstances of the space-extending building (REH – RaumErweiterungsHalle). The wood paneling and the pentagonal form of the construction give the space a unique acoustic. The stage set will be more abstract, using light and shadow to underscore the narrowness and monotony of the room. The Loser (Version 2) is the second part of the exhibition 2 Acts after Gasium et Circenses von Katarina Šević und Tehnica Schweiz (Gergely László & Péter Rákosi). Thematically the artists deal with the meaning and ambiguity of history and its documentation in their art practices. Time is always present in their works – in found correspondences, old press documents or similar references to the past. Both performances at REH Kunst transform and re-interpret these traces of the past.