Site specific work. 4 Performers, 180 min., 4 days.
23rd -26th of June 2022, Ebertplatz Cologne, Germany.

DIGGING THE GROUND deals with the suppressed emotional heritage we carry from our Nazi-past. 77 years after the Second World War, its traumatic traces are unaltered in our bodies.

In this performative intervention, 4 performers whose families were on the side of the offender during the Second World War, are digging themselves through the dirt of Ebertplatz and the general insensibility. Thereby, they uncover deeply buried emotions – grief and anger, anxiety, shame and disgust – and bring ourselves in contact with the repressed, which we repeat, without being able to work it through.

In a scenery made from sound, text, vocals and choreography, the piece of work leaves space for self-reflection. The audience finds itself in resonance with its emotions and the performance. We cannot work through our traumata by trying to think ourselves out of them. Only if our bodies have the space to endure those emotions which are tied to memories, we could be able again to do the necessary: to remember honestly and to act.