Cryptobiosis

Microbes can convert toxins, consume cancer cells, produce oxygen and write poetry. Tiny, opaque creatures are entering the stage as powerful beacons of hope in the ecological crisis. A dizzying glimpse into the dimensions of rotifers, dinoflagellates and foraminifera reveals: Nothing is rigid, everything moves and co-evolves with each other.

A magnificent mess. Biologists like Lynn Margulis call out to us: This planet is a place of radical collaboration! Our Homo Sapiens bodies are a collaborative household of trillions of tiny creatures and nothing and no one does anything all alone. Comfort and confidence for all who want to hear it. With a high-resolution microscope, an analog synthesizer and their more-than-human bodies, the performers in Cryptobiosis encounter themselves and the audience as science fiction beings that connect with the environment in texts, movements and sounds. A poetic contact with the spheres of the invisible and the other within the self.

Artistic direction and performance: Constantin Leonhard
Laboratory and performance: Nury Cecilia Zambrano Rodriguez
Music and performance: Benjamin Adams
Dramaturgy: Franziska Schneeberger
Artistic assistance: Valerie Wehrens
Video technology and lighting: Martin Wisniowski
Biological expertise: Klaus Fritze and lecturers
of the Department of Biology at the University of Cologne
Outside-Eye: Michael Dick

Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Supported by a microscope and equipment from Bresser GmbH

As part of BEYOND REALITIES - European Positions