CHRONIK DER DINGE, DIE WIR NICHT VERSTEHEN

Snapshots of a city

The partner for the TiB's first pact is a network project in Graz entitled “Das Grüne Band” (The Green Belt), which was initiated by Margarethe Makovec, Sibylle Dienesch and Thomas Wolkinger and launched in spring 2024.  

“The project aims to connect green, natural, vital places and their inhabitants between the Plabutsch in the west of Graz and the Leechwald in the east and make them accessible in both conceptual and formal terms. A “line”, a “transect”, a “ribbon” connects these places as well as the art and cultural institutions located there and other partners who enter into a relationship with one or more of these places for the duration of the project (and beyond, if possible), perhaps “adopting” them, or at least taking care of them.” (from the program text of Das Grüne Band)

The TiB ensemble members go to specific points on this imaginary green ribbon, meet members of the network project there and deal with things that they do not understand about this place.

Whether they concentrate on a broken insect wing on the murky water of the Hilmteich, whether they deal with the connections between Graz's urban policy since the 1970s and the formation of urban heat islands in the Gründerzeit belt, whether they dance across sealed streets to sense whether there is life underneath, whether they try to survive a few days in the forest, delve into complex questions or are on the trail of conspiracy theories, follow the mycelium of a hallimash, whether they retreat into a bunker or into their own incomprehension - all of this will flow into the chronicle of things we cannot understand.

Do I need to be here?

Why are swallows falling from the sky?

What does the outcome of the last election mean for this place?

Why does it smell so musty here?

Do I have to hate this Indian balsam?

Is it beautiful here?

With an installative intervention and the actors entering the respective spot, it becomes a stage. Prefabricated texts meet their own catalog of questions. The physical presence, the lingering and the confrontation with the place changes it. The attempt to understand is a kind of mapping - the blank spot is questioned and the result is a network of stories, places, languages and melodies.

This process is filmed and the videos form the basis for a personal chronicle of stories. We thus leave the outside space and go inside, where the videos are shown and flow together into an overall narrative. Like Ariadne's thread, the green ribbon runs through the story. The abundance that the protagonists encountered in the outdoor space meets a strict and simple form of storytelling here.

Team: Jacob Banigan, Juliette Eröd, Gabriela Hiti, Lorenz Kabas, Monika Klengel, Rupert Lehofer
Markus Rudolf-Klengel (technology)
Helene Thümmel (set design)
Fritz Hierzegger (video sound)
Christina Romirer (production management)

Eva Hofer (concept, text)
Johanna Hierzegger (concept, videos)

Inspired by the Green Belt network (<rotor>, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, neighborhood initiatives, scientists, observers, green space officers, architects, urban planners and many more)

(Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)