Sophiensæle
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Sophienstraße 18
10178 Berlin-Mitte

Siegmar Zacharias & Neha Chriss – Sophiensæle | Freies Theater in Berlin

Program

Saison 26/27

Siegmar Zacharias & Neha Chriss

Siegmar Zacharias (RO/D) works with different formats - performances, lectures and installations - that deal with the juxtaposition and opposition of theory and material. These oscillate aesthetically between labor and humor, do-it-yourself low- and high-tech. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in theaters and festivals, in galleries and conferences, in greenhouses, in the forest and in the sky. The subject of her art are questions of co-authorship, the role of the audience, and the formation of affective knowledge and experience. Zacharias is a member of the collective SXS Enterprise and co-founder of the artistic exchange and research platform WOW - WE WORK HERE. In addition to her art, she is also a lecturer - among others at DasArts (NL), DOCH (SWE), HZT Berlin and Folkwang University Essen. Her work develops formats of performances, immersive installations, discursive encounters that address questions of generative ethical dynamics of transformation: ecologies of artistic and social practice, agency, trauma work, death-positivity. She works with people and uncontrollable material such as smoke, mucus and the nervous system. For example, SLIME DYNAMICS (Sophiensæle Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf), Drooling Lecture (Tanznacht & MontagsModus Berlin, Centro Centro Madrid, Forum Amsterdam, FFT Düsseldorf) were created. With the idea of doing artistic research in public, she developed 24-hour immersive curatorial projects under the title Training for political imagination since 2017, where researchers*, artists*, activists* were invited to share their work with the audience. Events emerged such as: The Other Thing (MDT Stockholm 2017), Intimacy with Death (Agora Berlin 2018), Posthuman Solidarities (FFT Düsseldorf 2019), ANIMAterialities - The Future of Grief (FFT Düsseldorf 2020).

NEHA CHRISS is a para-academic, software engineer, sound designer, and noise artist interrogating the field of neurophysiology. As a black trans artist*, her work explores non-dual conceptual isolations and integrations, rehabilitation ecologies, and prosocial behavior. Her recent focus is on polyvagal theory and political solidarities. Neha's practices include both temporal and visceral methods, uncovering isometries and critical theories near auditory phenomena, psychoemotive states, sociopolitical movement, and trauma recovery. Neha's work is supported via digital sound production and audio programming languages. Works:  Hexing the Space - Recombinant Festival, Gray Area, SF, CA, Gravity Collapse - Pro Arts Oakland, CA, Dissotiation and Sense of Security, Polyvagal Theory and Political Solidarity - FFT Düsseldorf: Training for political imaginaries: currated by Siegmar Zacharias.

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