Katze Greeven:
Die Entfesselung
des Sebastian
Performance at the Werdersee
»What‘s more boring than flag waving? Watching people waving flags!« (Schützen-Weisheit – a saying from the Schützen club)
Katze Greeven grew up with the marksmen’s festival on the Lower Rhine and was spellbound watching the flag-waving at the Sunday parade. A flag-waving sequence typical of the region is »Die Fesselung und Entfesselung des heiligen Sebastian« (»The Binding and Unbinding of Saint Sebastian«), in which a flag is waved in horizontal circles around the body from head to toe. Each circle describes an area as flat as the Lower Rhine itself.
In Katze’s village, all flag wavers were men. Now the artist wants to become a flag waver herself and has her brother teach her the sequences to bring them to Bremen. Together with the musician Cordula Heins and the horn player Karin Knobloch, Katze recreates the choreography of (un-)binding and lets Sebastian speak. How malleable are military, Christian and patriarchal roots? Does a saint possess the potential of a drag king? And what is situated beyond boredom?
In a dialogue between flags, singing and brass instrument, a ritual unfolds as an entertaining show and urban custom on a meadow at the embankment behind the Schwankhalle. The performance raises questions about the role of the community in cities and the passing on of cultural heritage. Circle after circle, repetition becomes a symbol of breaking open traditions.
Instagram @katzegreeven ↗
Credits
Choreography & Performance: Katze Greeven
Vocals & Performance: Cordula Heins
Horn: Karin Knobloch
Costumes, Flags & Stage: Staeff Günther
Dramaturgy: Judith Strodtkötter
Choreographic Outside Eye: Neus Ledesma Vidal
Critical Observing: Yvonne Sembene
Production Management: Anne Storm
Co-production: Schwankhalle. Funded by the Senator for Culture of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Sparkasse Bremen and the Neustadt Local Council.