photo: Gabriela Neeb
Who is, in fact, mankind?, Anta Helena Recke asks in her new piece, a HAU co-production. Based on Sigmund Freud’s text “A Difficulty of Psychoanalysis”, the three “insults to humanity” which he pinpointed – the realization that we are not the centre of the universe, that we are descended from apes, and that we have a subconscious that we cannot control – are extended by a fourth insult: the fact that we doggedly overlook the greatest illusion, the assumption there is only one humanity. Perhaps because this would be one of the most profound insults to the human ego. The current global resurgence of fascist forces in phenomena such as “Men’s Rights Activism” and the self-confident appearance of white supremacy groups show just how deeply the illusion of white male humanity is anchored in the white body.
In Recke’s “Die Kränkungen der Menschheit,” images overlap one another in succession, creating a hybrid space between museum, zoo and laboratory: a horde of monkeys populates the stage, ultimately gathering together around a strange man in a white lab coat; a small museum group takes a walk; a large group of people draws patterns in the room. The evening takes us to those fragile moments when one idea of the world is replaced by another. “Die Kränkungen der Menschheit” is about the desire for showing, organizing and understanding. It’s a piece about a society overtaken by its own past.
EXTRASHOW: 8.02.2020 17.00
