Geister

Geister searches for the oppressed, extinguished and disappeared in our world and finds the traces of burned witches, queers and other people who do not belong to the privileged majority. Director Florian Fischer, who has already collaborated with Ludwig Berger on the audio play Unsichtbar about invisible care work in the 24-hour care, continues his research into the invisibility of groups of people in public perception with this work. He creates - with and without language - an essay for the stage in which we learn to see erased pasts. Because: The past never stops. The past is present. - Only when we realize that everything we consider normal had to be invented, a future becomes imaginable again.

During your research into The Invisible you also came across hidden mother photographs. What are these?
Florian Fischer: When photography began in the 19th century if you wanted a photo of a baby alone, the mother who held the child in her lap had to be invisible. The mother would disappear along with any thought about the work she was doing. This act of making invisible, this technique of non-depiction, is very interesting. It’s like an omission in the writing of history. This material is going to be the starting point for our production.

What do you envisage for this evening? Will it be linked to your audio play?
Yes, the performative form will be an extension of the acoustic drama. Care work is invisible. And as long as it remains invisible it will not be acknowledged, and as long as it remains unacknowledged it will not be adequately paid and as long as it is not adequately paid it will give rise to life-threatening situations. The evening could make us more aware of this. It ought to allow us to see and think things that will accompany us in our everyday lives. Who is missing here, in this picture, in this narrative of our society? Who is present but not yet part of society – and why? And what would change of me, for all of us, if all people were visible?