Public in Private / Clémentine M. Songe:
Living Room

A room with a life of its own. What if the furniture that inhabits our living room was tired of its fixed roles and tasks and decides to break free, move around, jump, transform, disassemble itself or join forces with other appliances? What if your bed, chair and bookshelf decided that they want to exist independent from their habitual context, on their own terms, free to become what they want, free to leave their fixed position and venture into the world. In Living Room Clémentine M. Songe (aka Clément Layes) explores the dynamics of the living room, that place where we surround ourself with things that feel familiar, intimate, recognizable, safe. Transforming this room into a ‘living room’, a room that makes its own choices. In collaboration with the architect Morana Mažuran from the architectural office Ortner & Ortner Baukunst, the light designer Ruth Waldeyer and visual artist Jonas Maria Droste, Clémentine M. Songe bare the many interrelations that appear between our lives and this place, showing how much we take our habitual environment for granted, relying on it in order to feel ‘at home’ in the world. 

Different abstract objects, reminiscent of a living arrangement, move according to their own operative logic, while the performer has to adapt to the rhythm and to the space again and again: The floor is sliding, turning, lifting. The room comes to life. It is, after all, a living room. 

From 09.12.2021 to 20.01.2022, LIVING ROOM can also be seen as a spatial installation in the exhibition space of the Berlin architecture firm O&O Baukunst: O&O Depot, Leibnizstraße 60, 10629 Berlin.

Trailer: Christoph Hewitt

The piece lasts about 70 minutes. It does not include any surprising or extreme light or sound effects. The audience area on the grandstand is seated. There are two wheelchair spaces and one beanbag seat that can be reserved by phone or booked via the online ticket shop, if available. Accessibility information is updated on an ongoing basis. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Gina Jeske atjeske@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35.