The Art of Camouflage // The Urban Tale of a Hippo – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
The Art of Camouflage // The Urban Tale of a Hippo
20€ / 25€
Ca. 2 h 20 Min, with interval
MaerzMusik 2025
During the performance of The Urban Tale of a Hippo, the audience can move freely around the space. Seats are available for persons with limited mobility.
As part of the Berliner Festspiele's MaerzMusik festival, this evening’s programme brings wildlife to the stage while dismantling divisions in a hybrid genre: In Ute Wassermann’s The Art of Camouflage, performative musical instruments create an environment that allows the different artistic practices of the performers to unfold. The concert performance is followed by The Urban Tale of a Hippo whose multidimensional atmosphere is soundtracked by Synaesthesis.
In The Art of Camouflage all the participants are interlinked in generating a speculative habitat. Between each other they play a game of disguise, intermingling and transformation in which the performers interact with the resonances emitted by water-filled aquaria that glow a noxious green or use mini loudspeakers or brass megaphones – an object of nautical origin – to produce mutations between human and amphibian voices. Do they retain their own identity, or do they become something “other”? The boundary between self and surroundings becomes fluid, and ultimately an illusion behind which a complex and elusive reality appears. In the process binarities such as animal/human, object/person, and nature/technology are overthrown in favour of more convoluted relationships based on reciprocity.
In The Urban Tale of a Hippo, composer Panayiotis Kokoras, choreographer Andrius Katinas and set and lighting designer Nanni Vapaavuori craft a multidimensional atmosphere of music and movement. Performed by the renowned ensemble Synaesthesis, the work explores the post-human condition through instrumental and electronic sounds immersed in fog and light. Inspired by the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the composition conjures three archetypal animal states, while the choreography transforms the audience into active participants with heightened sensory engagement. Synaesthesis deconstructs traditional playing to evoke animalistic and natural sounds, blurring boundaries between the organic and the synthetic. Dissolving hierarchies of sight, sound and viewpoint, The Urban Tale of a Hippo invites you on a fluid, intuitive journey where shadows of the past make way for silhouettes of the future.
ProgrammeUte Wassermann
The Art of Camouflage
for 3 voices, guitar, percussion, objects, bird whistles, plankton aquariums, brass megaphones, loudspeakers, field recordings (2025)
World premiere
Hochzeitssaal
Panayiotis Kokoras, Andrius Katinas, Nanni Vapaavuori, Morta Nakaitė, Synaesthesis, Operomanija
The Urban Tale of a Hippo (2022)
German premiere
Festsaal
Please note that details may change until the day of the event. Therefore, if you only find out after purchasing your ticket that the performance is no longer barrier-free for you, you can contact us at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 (Monday to Friday between 10 am and 6 pm) up to 5 working days after the event to return your ticket.
The Art of Camouflage:
Duration
- approx. 45 minutes without break
Language
- No language
Light
- The lighting atmosphere is rather dark.
Audience
Seated grandstand
2 beanbag seats bookable subject to availability
2 wheelchair spaces bookable subject to availability
Early boarding
There will be a long admission. Doors open 10 minutes before the start of the performance.
The Urban Tale of a Hippo:
Duration
- approx. 50 minutes without intermission
Language
- No language
Light
- The light atmosphere is rather dark
Other
- Fog is used
- Orientation in the room is very limited
- A drone flies over the audience for a short time
Audience
- The audience moves freely around the room.
- There are few seating options available (chairs with backrests, beanbags).
- 2 beanbag seats bookable subject to availability
- 2 wheelchair spaces bookable subject to availability
Early Boarding
- Early boarding. is possible. A loudspeaker announcement draws attention to this.
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 house here.
The Art of Camouflage
Voice: Ariane Jeßulat, Christian Kesten
Percussion, objects: Milo Tamez
Acoustic guitar, objects: Fernando Vigueras
Voice, bird whistles, objects, field recordings: Ute Wassermann
Field recordings: Felix Blume
The Art of Camouflage was commissioned by MaerzMusik / Berliner Festspiele and is based on research for Quimera (residency 2024, commissioned by Casa de Lago UNAM, Mexico City) and Camouflage (2024, commissioned by Ensemble Maulwerker). With the kind support of Goethe-Institut.
The Urban Tale of a Hippo
Viola: Monika Kiknadzė
Cello: Arnas Kmieliauskas
Flute: Vytenis Gurstis
Clarinet: Artūras Kažimėkas
Saxophone: Arminas Bižys
Piano: Marta Finkelštein
Composition: Panayiotis Kokoras
Direction: Andrius Katinas
Light: Nanni Vapaavuori
Costumes: Morta Nakaitė
Drone: Domantas Kancleris
Producer: Operomanija
Co-producing partner: Synaesthesis
The Urban Tale of a Hippo is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Germany.
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The Art of Camouflage, Ute Wassermann © Monica Garcia -
The Art of Camouflage, Ute Wassermann © Monica Garcia -
The Art of Camouflage, Ute Wassermann © Monica Garcia -
The Art of Camouflage, Ute Wassermann © Monica Garcia -
The Urban Tale of a Hippo © Martynas Aleksa -
The Urban Tale of a Hippo © Martynas Aleksa -
The Urban Tale of a Hippo © Martynas Aleksa -
The Urban Tale of a Hippo © Martynas Aleksa