In January, I was invited to collaborate as a stage photographer in a music theater piece – ‘Songs for Captured Voices’ by Thea Reifler, Philipp Bergmann, Sandra E. Blatterer, Laure M. Hiendl, Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk, Elaine Mitchener, Nico Navarro Rueda, Djibril Sall and the Ensemble KNM Berlin. The project centres around human voices that have been instrumentalised time and again throughout history, having become the object of asymmetrical power negotiations.

The premiere was reconfigured due to Covid and, instead of a live-stream, it was decided to release the piece as an album — an online booklet with a libretto, photographs and a sound recording of the music, with an online release on radialsystem from February 18th-28th, 2021.

Co-directors Thea Reifler and Philipp Bergmann proposed me to recreate the piece freely with my analogue photography. I decided to shoot on medium-format 6x9 and focus on the elements that make visible the anonymous voices that the piece is dealing with, to reflect on a state of absence while capturing the individual body language of the characters inhabiting this eye-striking landscape.

The collaborative experience became as well a written piece in my current editorial series IRL Stories as a new perspective on the matter, full story out on Umbigo Magazine. Witnessing, documenting and being part of this shapeshifting creative process with such a talented team was a great honor to me. Looking back, it shows a lot of what resilience means when creating collectively despite all odds.

[Please download the libretto and the photo booklet here: bit.ly/sfcv-libretto-booklet]

Composition Laure M. Hiendl
Libretto Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk
Voice Elaine Mitchener
Performance and Choreography Djibril Sall
Music Ensemble KNM Berlin
Direction Philipp Bergmann und Thea Reifler
Light & Stage Design Sandra E. Blatterer
Costume Nicholas Navarro Rueda
Photography Rita Couto
Production ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Graphic Jamila Wolfgruber
A production by Bergmann/Reifler/Hiendl GbR in cooperation with radialsystem. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. The preliminary research was supported by the Initialförderung Fonds Darstellende Künste. A composition commission by the radialsystem, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. Media partners: Ask Helmut, ExBerliner and tip Berlin.

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Songs for Captured Voices (Album Version) [Please download the Libretto and Booklet here: http://bit.ly/sfcv-libretto-booklet] A memento of the unspoken: The new piece of music theatre "Songs for Captured Voices," by Philipp Bergmann, Sandra E. Blatterer, Laure M. Hiendl, Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk, Elaine Mitchener, Nico Navarro Rueda, Thea Reifler, Djibril Sall and the Ensemble KNM Berlin comes to radialsystem at the beginning of February. The project centres around human voices that have been instrumentalised time and again throughout history and become the object of asymmetrical power negotiations. Audio recordings from German prisoner-of-war camps from the First and Second World Wars serve as the background of this project, as do acoustic recordings taken from the setting of current asylum procedures. The recordings themselves are not played or reproduced onstage; rather, the capture of these human voices acts as a starting point for attentive listening: the original music composed for this project allows what remains unspoken and hidden, what exists in the in-between sounds and blurriness, to resound. Due to circumstances, the music theatre "Songs for Captured Voices" will be released as an album version on the radar on the radialsystem website in February. This version includes a sound recording of the music as well as a booklet with the libretto and photographs of the stage work. ‌‌ Composition: Laure M. Hiendl Libretto: Göksu Kunak a.k.a. Gucci Chunk Voice: Elaine Mitchener Performance and Choreography: Djibril Sall Music: Ensemble KNM Berlin Direction: Philipp Bergmann und Thea Reifler Light: Sandra E. Blatterer Costume: Nicholas Navarro Rueda Photography: Rita Couto Production: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro Graphic: Jamila Wolfgruber Credits A production by Bergamann/Reifler/Hiendl GbR in cooperation with radialsystem. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. The preliminary research was supported by the Initialförderung Fonds Darstellende Künste. A composition commission by the radialsystem, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. Media partners: Ask Helmut, ExBerliner and tip Berlin.