Chaturanga is a production of the group Oakleaf Streetshow. From our experiences as performers in public space, in interactive contact with people, many ideas and new perspectives have emerged, which we would like to realize in this project. In addition, the Corona pandamic demands new formats that provoke closeness and togetherness, but without allowing direct physical contact.
The project is unique and has never been realized in this way before. It is based on the idea of a life-size playing field that occupies a parking area or a square. Rules of the game and fields delimited from each other provide the framework on the basis of which the visitors can encounter the contents and actions.
The production Chaturanga combines digital with live performance, deals with themes in different ways, also in interactive installations. In interviews and contributions, personal experiences with power, structural violence, war, racism and sexism are made audible. In addition, regional projects will be presented and small actions will be guided. We also encourage you to share your experiences with us in advance, so that we can work artistically with a pool of material that is as enriched as possible. Through artistic formats that show the diversity of people, that allow participation and also a direct influence on the overall production, the visitors are invited to a spontaneous, playful and active interaction. In doing so, the production works in a sensual, visual way by embedding impressive stilt costumes and installations.
Who is behind the idea, the realization? What is our motivation?
We introduce ourselves briefly:
Bettina Eichblatt: Oakleaf Streetshow has been around for 10 years now with me as the driving force. For 10 years we have been putting something new on our stilts every year and constantly trying to develop further. Corona, of course, put the brakes on us. After an initial shock, we are now trying to see this year as an opportunity to realize projects that are not possible in the current business, but have been on my mind for a long time. With Chaturanga we are realizing my long cherished wish to stage spaces and thus, with our wild collage, to rethink stilt art.
Joana Naomi Welteke: Watching videos on the cell phone on the way, informing oneself, noticing the other passers-by, adhering to rules, negotiating together, having an opinion – familiar, everyday things. I am looking for formats of artistic experience that are located in public space and ascribe a central formative role to participation. In the production Chaturanga, visitors are not spectators but participants. They are given freedom to decide, for example, how they move through the playing field, which perspective they take, how they deal with rules, how they use the available tools or how they react to the unexpected.
Emelie von Holten: I am 21 years old and currently studying law at the University of Hamburg. I have been walking stilts at Oakleaf Streetshow since I was 15 years old, and I started dancing when I was three. My personal focus is on the physical realization of ideas and costumes. How far can you take dance on stilts and always expand your movement vocabulary there too. I support the project Chaturanga with choreographic elements as well as content elaborations. The political aspect of the project appeals to me very much and gives us all the opportunity to incorporate our own themes and reflections.