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Mittlere Suite für Verpackungsmaterialien 

by Blixa Bargeld and Sven-Åke Johansson
invited by Thomas Kapielski to the 1st International Verkanntentreffen in Hebbel am Ufer (Hau 2), Berlin, 2005
 


The pair was invited to do something together, and that's just what they did. They fit well together, almost like a slapstick duo. That was funny. Here the tall, almost exaggeratedly healthy-looking Bargeld, there the short, thin, nimble Johansson. Both of them in dark three-piece suits, and Johansson with his jacket buttoned up. Both of them came up with a Suite for Packing Materials and produced sounds with just that: packing materials. Surrounded by cardboard boxes, they stood at a writing desk and packed nothingness into boxes. On the one hand bright, on the other dull, the styrofoam popcorn resonated as it hit the bottom of the boxes. There were scraping sounds here and there. They both skipped and pranced on sheets of bubble wrap that were rolled out in parallel formation, making cute popping sounds. How refreshing it was – the artistic limitation – especially compared to the showy and empty-headed slaughterings of material that other theater has given us.  D. Kuhlbrodt, TAZ