Und du bist raus – An interactive performance with musical chairs & live music during the pandemic at the Bordeaux-Platz in Munich. One of our greater fears is to be left out, not to have a group we belong to. Without a group to protect and nourish us, our survival is in danger. This is deeply ingrained in our psyche. It is true for a baby, the prehistoric human and also for everybody today.
Video by Daniela Oesterle
Facing rejection
We carry this ancient heritage around with us. We can deny it by pretending that we don´t need anybody or that our place is always secure. It isn´t. Family, friends, partnerships, country, workplace, school, society, apartment … we can fall out or getting kicked out of every group. In our brain, the feeling of group rejection is registered in the same way as pain.
During the 2020 pandemic the fear of being left out was especially palpable. I wanted to experiment what good could come of losing one’s place.
Finding freedom
I choose a children’s game that had been always in my head, musical chairs (in German: the travel to Jerusalem), as a starting point. It is just a game, but nevertheless, it induces the feeling of rejection when the music stops and everybody else in the group finds a place but you. I wanted to explore what good could come after being left out. Standing outside the group might hurt but it also can set us free to try out something new. In “und du bist raus”, those who lost their chair were offered a free space to dance. And after a while, the dance floor looked more attractive than the musical chairs.
Passersby were invited to take part in the performance, and a band was improvising for the participants.
The team that made “und du bist raus” possible: Fabienne Hübener (idea and organization), Kalinca Vicente (costumes and stage design), Gunther J Henne (dance), Heike Goritzki (costume), Christiane Böhnke (master of ceremony), music: Marty Cook, Geoff Goodman, Gunnar Geisse, Sebi Tramontana
The project was sponsered by the Bezirksausschuss Au/Haidhausen.
More about the project and the team on -> unddubistraus.de
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