2023

Via Berlin - Invisible City

Via Berlin Invisible City Commission Princes Dock Street Installation  Friday (10)

Invisible City is a brand-new audio theatrical installation, that takes you from a sense of loneliness to one of connection and community.

Can I take the words that hurt so much from you and carry them?

In the interactive theatrical performance and installation 'Invisible city' you view the city from a single room. A city that seems far away. Looking at the end of the horizon, behind the walls, the doors and through the trees. Taken to the past, to straighten that which is crooked and turn it upside down. And to see what is invisible to the outside world.

Words and sentences that are said casually, indifferently or directly, but which people take with them on their further journey after the contact has ended. They have stuck and we all carry them with us. What words and phrases are those?

Invisible city wants to work with people on a growing collection of painful words and sentences that have been said. Phrases that people say to each other in a romantic relationship, between colleagues, family and friends or just casually on the street. 

You can leave those hurtful words with Theatre-maker Dagmar Slagmolen and social designer Madelinde Hageman, and continue your journey through the city relieved.

For fourteen years, the Dutch music theatre ensemble Via Berlin has been mounting unique productions about burning social issues, interpreted through profoundly moving images, music and choreography.

Invisible City was developed in the Via Berlin Academy to collect stories from a variety of audiences.

At the Via Berlin Academy, we investigate how we can best collect perspectives on major and minor dilemmas. We do this by emphasizing the essential link between art, society and science. To this end, in addition to our performances, we are also developing new teaching methods based on Arts-Based Science in collaboration with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, the University of Amsterdam, the Hot Politics Lab of the University of Amsterdam, the Radboud University and ArtEZ University of the Arts and since 2023 Hull University.

Invisible City

Concept music theatre company Via Berlin

Performers artistic director and actress Dagmar Slagmolen & social designer Madelinde Hageman

Text Dagmar Slagmolen, Lotte Kok, Madelinde Hageman

Sound Design Robert van Delft

Installation design Michiel Voet

Costume Design Dieuweke van Reij

 

This commission has been supported by Freedom Festival Arts Trust and Hull Truck Theatre with support from British Council and University of Hull

Permanent partners of the Via berlin Academy: the University of Amsterdam, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Radboud University and ArtEZ University of the Arts

Via Berlin have core subsidy from: Fonds Podium Kunsten, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunsten, VSB fonds & Vrienden Loterij.

Invisible City is supported by IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space, in the frame of the project (UN)COMMON SPACES, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

IS-FF-HT-BC