{"id":38022,"date":"2016-09-21T14:56:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=38022"},"modified":"2016-09-21T14:56:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:56:08","slug":"anne-imhof-hamburger-bahnhof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/anne-imhof-hamburger-bahnhof\/","title":{"rendered":"How Anne Imhof Forged the Performance Piece of the Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Anne Left: “Angst II”; right: Frances Chiaverini. Both images by Nadine Fraczkowski, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof<\/p>\n

 
\nSeptember in Berlin is a month for art fairs, exhibition openings, and galleries cracking their doors to the light after a summer hiatus. The city once again becomes filled with art tourists.
\nAmid this hype, crystallising a type of hyperbolic exhaustion after a summer dominated by Berlin Biennale reviews, counter criticisms and your newest summer residency programme, Anne Imhof<\/a>\u2019s “Angst II”\u00a0landed somewhere on everybody\u2019s social calendars. Suddenly, everyone grew\u00a0excited to see what the sequel to “Angst” \u2013 which won the Nationalpreise last year \u2013 could bring.
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\"Anne Eliza Douglas and Mickey Mahar in “Angst II” by Anne Imhof, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, photo by Nadine Fraczkowski<\/p>\n

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Deconstructing fashion and dance<\/h3>\n

Anne Imhof\u2019s ongoing variations of performative actions are something like Xavier LeRoy meets Goethe meets a fucked up teenager high school party. Her performances often involve long, slow, jerked-out movements, typical of high art performance dance that can send the impatient viewer running and scoffing. The performers wear normcore designed outfits\u00a0that\u00a0fit easily into the repertoire of Hood by Air<\/a>, a New York\u00a0designer with conceptual\u00a0street aesthetics. Her performative situations often have no dialogue and offer no speeches from the performers, but involve a series of gestures that unfold in time and space. For instance, “Angst II”\u00a0deconstructs several gestures including\u00a0the catwalk sashay and and mosh pit dancing. One highlight involves the\u00a0performers sinking towards the ground, in one synchronised motion. The group sways their bodies together while singing a tune about tragedy.
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\"Anne Franziska Aigner and Eliza Douglas in “Angst II” by Anne Imhof, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, photo by Nadine Fraczkowski<\/p>\n

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Imhof’s Gesamtkunswerk<\/h3>\n

“Angst II” was the only Gesamtkunstwerk<\/em> present within Berlin Art Week<\/a>. A\u00a0term developed by Richard Wagner,\u00a0Gesamtkunstwerk<\/em> is a work of art that spans sound, set design, acting, choreography, visuals, and concept. It is a total synthesis of media, sound and theatrics, literally meaning a total work of art.
\nThe performance begins with a woman walking on a tightrope. Music swells into the large hall of Hamburger Bahnhof, a former\u00a0train station turned museum. The hall is filled with mist and smoke. As the tightrope-walker moves into the space laterally, six bodies emerge from the mist. They are all dressed similarly, in baggy white pants, athletic tops, and exercise shirts. Towards the sides of the exhibition space are other performers who simply sit, do nothing, or lounge on sleeping bags. Towards the walls are soft drink cans and red bulls. The setting is extremely austere, and there aren\u2019t any colours, only two circular staircases painted white and made of welded metal. Occasionally, a performer climbs the staircase and lounges at the top, perhaps too tired to jump off the top or even feign committing suicide.
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\"Anne Left: Frances Chiaverini, Franziska Aigner, Eliza Douglas, Josh Johnson, Emma Daniel, Katja\u00a0Cheraneva, Mickey Mahar, Enad Marouf and Billy Bultheel, right: Mickey Mahar in “Angst II” by Anne Imhof, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, photo by Nadine Fraczkowski<\/p>\n

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Part Berghain, part\u00a0sad teenage art joke<\/h3>\n

This is the environment of the entire performance,\u00a0an\u00a0artwork that lies somewhere between Berghain and a sad teenage art joke. The whole piece is extremely operatic, stretched out across four hours. Scenarios repeat, however. Sometimes one catches moments of beauty, like the slow crowd surfing one dancer makes, gliding across the mist. The motion is reminiscent of Christ\u2019s apotheosis, but even as\u00a0the\u00a0scenario approaches divinity, there still exists an atmosphere of\u00a0heathenry.\u00a0At one point, an androgynous performer, breasts wrapped in a sports band, lies backwards as a drone flies over her body. Or three female performers spit sunflower seeds from their perch onto a\u00a0dancer slowly\u00a0walking underneath. In the final crescendo, the performers run back and forth, transcribing the space in an anti-sacrificial manner, all\u00a0before striking their best girl band pose and\u00a0giving the audience the middle finger.
\nThe performance will leave viewers\u00a0either walking out after\u00a0five minutes in search of a real nightclub experience, or it\u00a0will transfix you, luring you into the siren song.
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Angst II by @Anne_Imhof #canoneos5dmarkiii #hamburgerbahnhof #berlinartweek #anneimhof #angstII #berlinpage #berlinbreeze #iheartberlin #diestadtberlin #berlincity #ig_berlin #ig_berlincity #berlinlover #igersberlin #igersberlinofficial #berlin_boheme #visit_berlin #ig_deutschland #diewocheaufinstagram #vsco_love #vsco_masters #vscogenius #vscovisual<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by Alexander Rentsch (@alexanderrentsch) on