Hans Unstern: DIVEN | Juni 17 | SOPHIENSÆLE – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Hans Unstern:
DIVEN
DIVEN
As part of the Leisure & Pleasure Festival, Hans Unstern plays the very last concert in Berlin - as Hans Unstern. Afterwards, Hans Unstern's metamorphosis takes on new forms that need a new name.
On DIVEN, the latest album by Hans Unstern, there are countersexual love songs, multispecies time-meditations and the outrageous poetry of the experiential spaces of unassimilated bodies. Made for the big stage, Hans Unstern's lyrics oscillate between modern fairy tales, criticism of the myth of the binary gender system and of their own working conditions in capitalism, and more. Since the album, The Great Hans Unstern Swindle, a good 10 years ago, Hans Unstern and Simon Bauer have been building experimental harps in their underground workshop. Most recently the electro-acoustic V-Harp, consisting of 8 different sounding modules, which create all the sounds of this concert. Musically, DIVEN moves between lyrical softness and punk moments, from pompous slide harp clouds to improvised free sequences.
METAMORPHOSIS FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time there were various caterpillars. They lived like maggots in the bacon belt of mutual food inspiration. They lived in a paradise bubble. They had more ideas than they could eat: One served early dew for breakfast and mildew for the small hunger directly afterwards, the other served peaches tree leaves in abundance for lunch, for dessert bearded lice with honey, one found a cake and they ate tunnels into the chocolate, then it was dandelion snack time, later intermediate crunching at the curb, for supper kilos of half-hearted champagne corks, for dessert ass wobble pudding and nightcap at Silver Future. Finally, the next morning, behind the leafy scar of the quaking aspen, they awoke, fat and ripe and laughing to themselves. It would become the thickest cocoon the world had ever seen. And it would ooze. And the caterpillar gang would disintegrate inside to the exclusion of the majority society and immediately surrender to a process of reassembling itself. Something was happening to the caterpillars that they could no longer understand. They wondered anyway if they had ever held the strings, or if it was the secretions from their mouths that had spun the stories they told each other between meals. The cocoon held tight. Time passed. Unclear how much. Seconds, perhaps. It twitched and poofed, the cocoon broke, sun warmed, wings flapped, the cocoon bubble burst. Out came more winged animals than caterpillars had gone in. Turquoise iridescent patterns, growth purple in all shades, blue dreamy eye lines, black shimmer. More colors unfolded than the caterpillars had brought with them at the time. A joy flutter dance rose as a butterfly cloud. The metamorphosis was painless and perfect.
If any questions remain from the following information, please feel free to contact Hannah Aldinger at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Duration
- 80 minutes
- After 60 minutes there is a short break. After that there is a 20-minute encore.
Language
- German and English singing
Stage
- The performers play on self-made harps and sing.
Light
- The lighting situation in the audience is dark.
- On stage there is a dynamic lighting situation between light and dark.
- There are short moments when fast light changes, stroboscope and blinding light are used.
Sound
- Surprising sound effects are used.
- There are two places where it gets loud.
Other effects
- There are brief moments when fog is used on stage.
Audience area
- There is a variety of seating (two rows of seats, beanbags, wheelchair seating, cushions on the floor).
- Movement in the space is possible and welcome
- 2 beanbag seats bookable subject to availability
- 2 wheelchair places bookable according to availability
Early boarding
If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility at the Sophiensaele here.
Artistic Direction, Performance Hans Unstern, Simon Bauer Sound Karen Dhios, Tilman Hopf Light Catalina Fernandez Tour Management, Roadie Louis Krüger
A production of Hans Unstern. The guest performance is supported within the frame of Leisure & Pleasure, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund. Media partners: Arts of the Working Class, Berlin Art Link, Kulturplakatierung, Missy Magazine, Rausgegangen, tip Berlin, taz.die tageszeitung.
HANS UNSTERN is a multitude that makes songs, lyrics, musical instruments, performances and theater and as such addresses questions of authorship, gender and constant (musical) transformation. The debut album Kratz Dich Raus was released in 2010. In 2012, the poetry collection Hanky Panky Know How was published by Merve Verlag in Berlin, as well as the second studio album The Great Hans Unstern Swindle, which was developed together with producer Nackt. For the following concert tour, Hans Unstern developed and built six harps and other stringed instruments together with Simon Bauer. In 2016, the BOIBAND was formed in collaboration with Tucké Royale and Black Cracker. In 2020, Hans Unstern has released DIVEN, their third studio album.
SIMON BAUER studied double bass at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and now lives as a freelance musician and composer. He is a regular member of various ensembles. He designed and built the instruments for Hans Unstern's stage program Der große Hans-Unstern-Schwindel. Bauer has worked as a musician and composer for Theater Konstellationen, Bottlefed Ensemble, Reut Shemesh Dance Company and Overhead Project. He performed as co-writer of the dance piece Maquillage, created in collaboration with Vincent Bozek and Orlando Rodriguez, at the 2014 Madrid International Dance Festival. The Virgins Voice and The Boy who Cries Wolf (choreography: Reut Shemesh) were nominated for the Cologne Dance Prize in 2014, as was Leviah in 2016.