MANİFEST(O)

2021

Rituale erzählen das Leben, erzählen den Tod. Rituale sind Beginn und Abschied und beides zugleich. Rituale durchbrechen das Alltägliche, machen Unsichtbares sichtbar, können soziale Ordnungen wiederherstellen, nach Krisen, nach Katastrophen Wunden heilen und aufs Neue aufbrechen. Rituale sind Küsse, sind Bisse. Rituale sind Reinigung, Verwirrung, Provokation. Rituale können Klage führen, nach Rache und Vergeltung rufen, die Liebe besingen, um Vergebung bitten, das Erinnern erinnern, das Vergessen vergessen machen.

In einer Gesellschaft, die sich so rasant wandelt, die so divers ist, wie Menschen es sich nur wünschen können, mag/wird es notwendig sein, neue Rituale zu erfinden und sie zu vergessen, zu erfinden, zu vergessen…

Um unseretwillen.

21 years after the NSU (National Socialist Underground) terrorist group murdered Enver Şimşek, the first of many assassinations, and ten years after the NSU was exposed, the background of those crimes and the group’s right-wing extremist entanglements, reaching deep into state structures, still remain unreckoned. On the contrary, right-wing radicalism, contempt and xenophobia are entrenching ever deeper in society.

Marc Sinan’s polytopic oratorio MANİFEST(O) (Turkish for “Manifesto”) unites seven individual performances, performed at key sites of the so-called NSU, into a full-length work. MANİFEST(O) emerges from individual voices as a cross-border oratorio with orchestra, choirs and soloists that connects history and places. Negative energies of the crimes are taken up, basic questions of retribution and new beginnings are discussed and processed in an ethical utopia.

The oratorio MANİFEST(O) and seven individual performances, DIE ABWESENHEIT GOTTES / TANRI’NIN YOKLUĞU, BLINDE LIEBE / KÖR AŞK, DIE ANWESENHEIT DES MENSCHEN / İNSANIN VARLIĞI, DER ALTAR DER RACHE / İNTIKAM SUNAĞI, GLÜHENDER HASS / YANAN NEFRET, PARLAYAN NUR & DER CHOR DER VERGEBUNG / AFFETME KOROSU always take place simultaneously at different locations in Germany and are digitally linked to each other.

On three evenings, parts of the performances taking place in seven cities will be visibly and audibly transmitted to Jena and Nuremberg and blend into the full-length oratorio in a precisely coordinated way. The Jena Philharmonic Orchestra with orchestra, boys’ choir, AuditivVokal Dresden and soloists form the immediate artistic framework and at the same time the musical centre in the respective cities / Jena and Nuremberg.

Guided and questioned by the voice and thoughts of a young girl, a manifesto of the transboundary presence of man, memory and hope emerges at a time when values are corroding and becoming relative. MANİFEST(O) is an oratorio that can connect places, attitudes, cultures, choirs and soloists, orchestras and the audience alike.

Tickets for the various events are available on the respective website of the organiser.
>>>An overview is available here

MANİFEST(O) is being commissioned by Licht ins Dunkel e.V. as a contribution to the nationwide theatre project Kein Schlussstrich!, in which artistic and civil society interventions on the NSU complex will take place in 15 German cities from 21 October to 7 November 2021.

The project aims to bring the perspectives of the victims’ families and (post-)migrant communities into the public focus and create spaces for conversation about structural and everyday racism in our society.

More information on the decentralised theatre project Kein Schlussstrich! is available on www.kein-schlussstrich.de.

Kein Schlussstrich! is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend im Rahmen des Bundesprogramms „Demokratie leben!“, the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, the Innovationsförderung der Stadt Jena, the Staatskanzlei Thüringen, the Kulturreferat der Stadt München, den Geschäftsbereich Kultur der Stadt Nürnberg, the Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg, the Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung, the GLS Treuhand Dachstiftung für Individuelles Schenken, the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Stadt Kassel, the Impulsregion Erfurt Weimar Jena, the Initiative „The Power of the Arts“ of the Philip Morris GmbH, the Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, the Carl Zeiss AG, the Thüringer Ministerium für Umwelt, Energie und Naturschutz, die Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, the city Köln as well as the participating theatres and institutions as sponsors of the project.

Composition, musical & artistic direction
Marc Sinan

Dramaturgy, libretto
Holger Kuhla

Conduction, Musical Direction
Simon Gaudenz

DIE ABWESENHEIT GOTTES / TANRI’NIN YOKLUĞU
Organ

BLINDE LIEBE / KÖR AŞK
Bağlama
Derya Yıldırım
Percussion
Greta Eacott
Sound
Tobias Levin

DIE ANWESENHEIT DES MENSCHEN / İNTİKAM SUNAĞI
Percussion
Daniel Eichholz, Christian Kuzio & Rostocker Jugendliche

DER ALTAR DER RACHE / İNTIKAM SUNAĞI
Performance
Jelena Kuljić, Mateja Meded, Mirko Borscht, Volkan T error

GLÜHENDER HASS / YANAN NEFRET
Clarinet
Oğuz Büyükberber

GLEISSENDES LICHT / PARLAYAN NUR
Piano
Emre Elivar

DER CHOR DER VERGEBUNG / AFFETME KOROSU
Choirs from Dortmund, Cologne & Nuremberg

MANİFEST(O)
Fanny Sel Baute, Naz Yilmaz, Iva Bittová, Andreas Fischer, Katia Guedes, Meinrad Kneer, Johanna Krödel, Saša Mirković, Johanna Vargas, Jenaer Philharmonie, AuditivVokal Dresden, Knabenchor der Jenaer Philharmonie

Photos
Dorit Gätjen, Candy Welz, Local International

Lead-Sponser
JenaKultur