Ich bin mir selber fremd geworden - Stimmen aus dem Frauenzuchthaus Hoheneck (Musiktheater)

In the organizer's words:

I have become a stranger to myself
Voices from the Hoheneck women's prison

Performative concert and commemoration

from

Treasure & Shame
New Chamber

16:00 Admission
16:30 Start of performance
Followed by a discussion with contemporary witness Karin Leberwurst

The Hoheneck women's prison (near Stollberg/Saxony) has become a symbol of political persecution in the GDR: with draconian punitive measures that violated human rights, degrading prison conditions and forced labor in the textile industry, the GDR power apparatus attempted to break political opponents in many thousands of cases - the most common "offense": planned or attempted escape from the republic. An extraordinary performance of contemporary music, choreography and light, conceived by the music theater collective Schatz & Schande and the ensemble Neue Kammer, seeks an artistic confrontation with these crimes.

Under the title "Ich bin mir selbst fremd geworden" (I have become a stranger to myself), the focus is on poems written by imprisoned women during their time in Hoheneck and set to music by composer Philipp Rücker in 2024. The poems take the form of a variety of voices and string instruments and enter into a dialogue with a light installation that brings to life the colorlessness, narrowness and monotony of everyday life under bars: As if in the shades of gray of a black-and-white film, a face, a hand, a silhouette looms dimly; at the same time, light and shadow become repressive deciders of closeness and distance, touch and isolation of the actors*, who try to preserve their inner freedom between sewing machines, walls and chastisement.

What emerges is a daring, novel form of remembrance culture: the artists make the oppressive imprisonment in Hoheneck tangible with their eyes and ears, vividly convey a sense of powerlessness and violence - and erect a powerful memorial to the imprisoned women from their own words.

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"Neue Kammer and Schatz & Schande impressively advance the trend of free music theater with social themes that is emerging in several places."
neue musikzeitung