Sur­vival Strate­gies for Cold Countries

There have always been large waves of migra­tion into and out of Europe caused by eco­nom­ic devel­op­ments. Nonethe­less, the arrival of refugees in Ger­many in 2015 was per­ceived as a state of emer­gency by many people. It may have been a spe­cial sit­u­a­tion, but it was by no means the first time some­thing like this had occurred. Migra­tion is the norm, in the past as well as the present.

What does it mean to arrive in a new place? How does it feel for the people arriv­ing? This extra­or­di­nary col­lec­tive project works with cur­rent and his­tor­i­cal sources, lit­er­ary texts, films, and con­tem­po­rary wit­ness­es. The com­bi­na­tion of film, music, and the­atri­cal per­for­mance cre­ates a poetic story about arriv­ing – about wait­ing, expec­ta­tions, attri­bu­tions, belong­ing, and about strate­gies of daily life in an envi­ron­ment that seems unfa­mil­iar at first.

The short­film­live­mu­sic col­lec­tive from Dres­den has been devel­op­ing doc­u­men­tary film con­certs about so-called Gas­tar­beit­er (“guest” or for­eign work­ers) in West Ger­many and Ver­tragsar­beit­er (con­tract work­ers) in East Ger­many since 2005. This con­cert is their first col­lab­o­ra­tion with the elec­tron­ic musi­cian Ephraim Wegner and the actor and writer Fadi Mhawesch.

Pro­duced by short­film­live­mu­sic , Kom­mu­nalen Kino Freiburg e.V. and HELLERAU - Europäis­ches Zen­trum der Künste Dresden
in coop­er­a­tion with E-Werk Freiburg and zusam­men leben e.V

Con­cept: Ner­i­man Bayram, Jan F. Kurth, Clemens Hauser
Dra­matur­gy: Ger­hard Spaney, Jan F. Kurth
Film selec­tion: Ner­i­man Bayram, Ben­jamin Schindler
Pro­jec­tion, com­po­si­tion: Ben­jamin Schindler
Com­po­si­tion: Jan F. Kurth, Matthias Kurth, Ephraim Wegner, Dániel Vedres
Pro­duc­tion man­ag­er: Franziska Kache
Play, Per­for­mance: Fadi Mhawesch
Live-Elek­tron­ics: Ephraim Wegner -
Voice: Jan F. Kurth
Elec­tric guitar, oud: Matthias Kurth
French horn, effects: Dániel Vedres
Tenor sax­o­phone, bass clar­inet: Lutz Streun
Drums: Demian Kappenstein

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