Enad Marouf: Losers – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

Enad Marouf: Losers

Three people stand on a hazy stage lit in greenish tones. On the left, a person with curly hair, a glittery tank top and striped trousers looks to the side. On the right, a person in a checked shirt glances over their shoulder, next to a person in a floral blouse and jeans who extends one hand forward. A large wall behind them mirrors the group.
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Bringing together text, dance and music through a cinematic lens, Losers by Enad Marouf invites the audience to trace a moment of political loss. In his new performance, Marouf revisits writings that read history from the standpoint of the oppressed and defeated. The performance brings Walter Benjamin’s On the Concept of History (1940) into conversation with Arwa Salih’s The Stillborn (1996). Benjamin’s “Angel of History” faces the wreckage of the past while being propelled backwards into the future by “the storm called progress”. Salih writes about the aftermath of the Egyptian Marxist student movement of 1972, examining the disillusionment of a revolutionary generation and the contradictions that continued to haunt it. Both Benjamin and Salih reject history as a smooth narrative of progress, turning instead towards its failures, losses and unrealised possibilities.

Losers understands loss or defeat not solely as an ending, but as a question of what has failed, what has been suppressed and what might still be possible. To think from the position of the loser is less about finding concrete answers than about asking how defeat might become a space for reflection and for imagining togetherness otherwise.

In simple words

Losers combines text, dance and music. It is about loss. Enad Marouf uses texts by Walter Benjamin and Arwa Salih. Both tell history from the point of view of those who lost. They ask: What failed? What was lost? What could have been?

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Ticket

The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department 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

  • Approx. 60 minutes without intermission

Language

  • German and Arabic spoken language, with English Surtitles

 Light

  • There are abrupt changes in lighting, ranging from very dark to very bright
  • There are several moments of complete darkness.
  • Some scenes contain dazzling light. A mirror foil on stage can cause glare and partly creates flickering images.
  • Strobe-like lighting is used (for several minutes).

Sound

  • It gets loud. Earplugs are provided.
  • There is an almost continuous soundscape of music and sound.
  • There is strong bass.
  • There is one moment of complete silence.

Other effects

  • Stage fog is used

Audience area

  • Seated grandstand
  • 2 beanbag seats bookable according to availability
  • 2 wheelchair seats bookable according to availability

Early boarding

 Early boarding is available. It will be announced over the loudspeaker.

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.

Concept, choreography: Enad Marouf
Performance: Ronald Alonso Berger, jee chan, Kiana Rezvani
Voice: Jannah Emam, Bassyma Saad, Majdolen
Music: Cem Dukka
Stage: Enad Marouf
Lighting design, technical direction: Gustav Kleinschmidt
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Choreographic assistance: Samuel Pereira 
In conversation with: Franziska Aigner, Edwin Nasr
Production assistance: Carola Paha, Nomi Sladko
Production management: Florian Greß

A production by Enad Marouf in co-production with Sophiensæle. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: The Berliner, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz, tip Berlin.

Enad Marouf is a Syrian-German performance and video artist based in Berlin. His work focuses on body and text, using video, dance, language and installation as poetics and articulation of temporalities that influence our physicality and the way we narrate the world around us. He completed his Masters in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen/Frankfurt. His solo works and collaborations have been shown at Sophiensæle, the Athens Biennale, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, Centre culturel Francais de Damas, Babel Beirut, Tate Modern London, Art Institute of Chicago, Shedhalle Zurich, Kampnagel and Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, among others. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Will Grohmann Prize.

  • Three people dance close together in warm, hazy light. A person in a checked shirt is seen from behind, a person in a glittery tank top leans forward with clenched fists, and opposite them a person in a colourful floral blouse smiles.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • Against a black background, two people embrace in a warm pool of light. A person in a floral blouse rests their head on the other’s chest and holds on to their shoulder. The person in a checked shirt holds them, eyes closed.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • A vast, dark hall with rough walls and several freestanding mirrored panels, lit only by a single ceiling spotlight. On the left, a person stands with their back to the camera; in the background, a person leans against the wall; in the right foreground, a person lies face down on the floor.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • An almost completely dark stage with three hazy mirrored panels in the background. A diagonal beam of light is reflected in the middle panel. In the right foreground, a person in a glittery tank top lies on their side on the floor, propped up on one elbow, lit by warm light.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • Three people in a bright room with mirrored walls. A person in a grey glittery top lies on the floor, head propped on one hand. A person in a colourful floral shirt and jeans lies beside them with eyes closed, head leaning against them. Behind them, a person in an orange top sits reading a book.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • Three people stand close together against a cloudy sky, photographed from below. In the middle, a person in a colourful floral shirt looks down seriously. On the left, a person in an orange top leans their head against them and raises a fist to their shoulder. On the right stands a person in a grey top, with a hand raised behind them.
    © Joseph Kadow
  • Three people on the floor of a bright room, with slanting sunlight falling through a window. In front, a person in an orange top and grey trousers sits looking to the side, one hand resting on the hip of a person lying on their side behind them. On the left, a person in jeans leans against the seated person's back with eyes closed.
    © Joseph Kadow