Dear Gessnerallee visitors, dear culture enthusiasts, dear artists
Last Sunday saw the start of advance sales for the ‘Backslash Festival’, a transdisciplinary festival of live musical acts and performances that has been held at our venue in cooperation with Gessnerallee since 2018. Make sure you get one of the limited early bird tickets.
On Monday, Scottish-based artists Rosana Cade, Ivor MacAskill, Tim Spooner and Yas Clarke began their two-week residency with us for their new work ‘NOW NOT NOW’. They are planning an ambitious multimedia project that explores time, human sensations and the perception of reality. The project will be shared with us as part of a workshop and developed further over the coming months at various locations. Until - at some point in the future - it will be performed on stage.
But we can't wait that long. We are big fans.
And that's why they are showing their current work ‘The Making of Pinocchio’, which also began as part of a residency at the Gessnerallee four years ago, at the start of the season on 27 and 28 September. Some of us saw the brilliantly crafted, funny and romantic work last year at the ‘auawirleben’ theatre festival in Bern, and some of us at the Sophiensaele in Berlin. We were all blown away with enthusiasm. And we are not the only ones. The play is being celebrated internationally by the press and audiences alike. Do you have your tickets yet? We would be delighted to see you.
And that's not all.
‘The Making of Pinocchio’ is a work in which a strong focus on accessibility was already made during the development process. It is conceived as a Relaxed Performance* and is offered with surtitles and an audio description in English.
The constant breaking down of barriers, and the joyful work on access in artistic work, are a focus of Kathrin Veser and Miriam Walther's concept for the Gessnerallee over the next four years.
This has already had a noticeable impact on the programme. The work ‘Down (full album)’ by Mélissa Guex is being developed especially for Gessnerallee as a Relaxed Performance format and in October, all of the ‘Performance Prize Switzerland’ items will be adapted as Relaxed Performances in a laboratory for neurodivergent** people.
During Dimitri de Perrot's rehearsals for his new work ‘UNTER UNS - Eine Reise in die Tiefen des Bodens’, we will be advised on accessibility by experts from Sensability - Expertise for Inclusion. The aim is to work out how the play can be developed as accessible as possible and later offered to an audience.
For an overview, we provide weekly updates on programme items, newspaper articles, news and everything else we want to share with you:
Programme recommendation
16 September, 7 pm - 9 pm
‘Access rider workshop including pizza’ with Criptonite
The Criptonite group invites you to an open access rider workshop including pizza as part of the ‘Crip Lab’ laboratory for disabled and chronically ill artists. An access rider is a communication aid for discussing accessibility needs with event organisers (e.g. theatres). The workshop is free and open to all disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent** people who already have an access rider or would like to create a new one. Criptonite will provide templates and information, order pizza and work with participants on their access riders. Everyone attending is invited to support each other. Please bring writing materials and/or a laptop/tablet. Accessibility information: Please take a Covid self-test provided by the group at arrival. The room is steplessly accessible, a quiet room and beanbags are available. If you have any questions about the workshop and accessibility, please contact Nina Mühlemann and Edwin Ramirez at contact.criptonite@protonmail.com.
18 September, 5.15 pm
‘Art in Conflict: Art as a motor for social change’ by artasfoundation
In this series of monthly talks, different actors come together to reflect on their experiences of creating art in crisis regions in the form of a round table discussion. This time with Diala Brisly (fine artist, France) and Cindy Horst (Peace Research Institute Oslo PRIO, Norway). More information
Newspaper
Aesthetics of Access - exploring artistic accessibility
One focus of Gessnerallee's curatorial and dramaturgical work over the next four years is ‘Aesthetics of Access’. Find out what this is and what it's all about in this article by Noa Winter. Read
’And then I was looking at the colour blue because I had the blues’
For anyone who missed Isabel Gatzke's interview with choreographer Oona Doherty last week. Read
Furthermore
*Relaxed Performance (RP for short) is an accessibility format that aims to welcome people for whom the usual conventions of performance events, such as sitting still for long periods in a confined space, unannounced strong sensory stimuli or interaction, represent a barrier and who are often excluded by these things. They are aimed in particular at neurodivergent people (e.g. autistic people, people with Tourette's or ADHD) and are crucially co-developed by them.
** Neurodivergence is a political term that refers critically to norms that describe how human perception works and/or how information is processed.
You can find more information on accessibility at Gessnerallee and explanations of terms relating to accessibility tools on our website: https://gessnerallee.ch/en/accessibility.
If you have any questions about accessibility, our agents for diversity, Ramona Unterberg and Manuel Gerst, are here for you and can be reached via the following e-mail: barrierefreiheit@gessnerallee.ch.
The Gessnerallee team
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