LUSTGARTEN
Stage design reuse
in cooperation with Schauspiel Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany, 2022
The premise for this project was a shift in thinking and dealing with resources and space, especially in the face of prevailing global challenges, such as climate change and an ever growing social inequality and exclusivity. Theatres can be catalysts of experimental thought with a wide outreach, as they too, pose themselves the question of how artistic vision, social integration and sustainability can come together.
Invited by the Schauspiel Stuttgart, we directed our view towards the high level of waste in stage design. The result was an open construction site, uniting the participatory process in a public space with a circular approach towards used and discarded materials.
Positioned directly opposite the closed off theatre building, we encouraged casual encounters with passers-by and theatre visitors and created structures out of remains of old stage sets, open in their creation and use.
The ensuing material collage took form in the shape of furniture-like objects for different humans and uses, spatial dividers and entryways alluding to architectural grandesse of classical art institutions, as well as shape shifting structures that activate playfulness in an otherwise sterilized public space.
In the evenings these interventions were appropriated and gave space to performances from guerilla theatre groups. concerts and readings, attracting a bigger and coincidental audience.
After one week of binding, cutting, painting and moving, the structure was dismantled and a few of the objects were gifted to the courtyard of one of the neighborhood schools.