SUBCUTIS - Eine intermediale Performance über Haut und den Rausch der Selbstoptimierung

In the organizer's words:

"A great evening about final questions, finiteness and humanity, death and the future." (stadtrevue, Cologne city magazine)

"Subcutis is at once ballet, pantomime, concert, video show, celebration of life, stirring debate and, of course, theater in the best sense of the word. The cross-generational event with professional actors, amateurs and musicians unites contemporary consumer criticism, utopias and dystopias of an existence that has long since ceased to be god-made and is now man-made. The impact of the piece reaches far beyond the skin..." (CHOICES)

In the ongoing frenzy of self-optimization, the natural properties of the skin do not seem to be enough. New technical developments are accelerating the trend for more and more people to have high-tech gadgets implanted under their skin, subcutaneously - and thus the membrane that represents the natural barrier between their physique and the outside world is becoming increasingly permeable. What seems like a blessing for some, frightens others - where are our limits? How is this development changing our image of humanity?

13 citizens from different generations, milieus and backgrounds, together with 3 professional performers and the musicians Pía Miranda (trombone) and Peter Eisold (percussion & electronics), take a look at the topic of skin as the boundary between the inner and outer world and the beginning of a new era: the age of transhumanism.

SUBCUTIS is a production of A.TONAL.THEATER, the Theater an der Ruhr and the VolXbühne (Mülheim an der Ruhr) in co-production with Freihandelszone - Ensemblenetzwerk Köln and the Alte Feuerwache Köln as well as in cooperation with the "Zukunftswerkstatt der Volkskunde/Kulturgeschichte unter Leitung von Anne Dippel" of the University of Jena.