Public Program: Talk

・Summary
In this two-part talk, German theatre maker Oliver Zahn first discusses his past works on nationalism, incorporated knowledge and political memory, as well as his approach to artistic research for performance essays through embodiment, ethnography and historical study.
The second part of the presentation will revolve around his current research into the ways landscape and forces of nature shape and form human culture and communities, Proposing to focus on concrete human responses to uncontrollable events – from conceptualizing worst-case scenarios, to creating a sense of preparedness through careful rehearsals and preparation – as a lense through which the more-than-human can become visible and negotiable. (Oliver Zahn)

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■Profile
Oliver Zahn
Oliver Zahn (*1989) is a writer, theater maker and performer.
His work, always based on extensive ethnographic and archival research as well as self-experimentation, includes among others SITUATION WITH OUTSTRETCHED ARM (2015, about the cultural history of the “Hitler salute” gesture), IN PRAISE OF FORGETTING (December 2019, about forgetting as a productive social practice), as well as its online desktop sequel IN PRAISE OF FORGETTING, Part II (rethinking the discourses of the first part for the digital space, in May 2020) and PURITY (on social and medical discourses of hygiene, filtered through the lense of an obsessive washing-ritual, in December 2024).
His research in Japan is part of the starting point for a series of new works that deal with the influence of landscape and forces of nature on human history and societies.
Oliver Zahn’s works are shown at important festivals in German-speaking countries (including Tanzplattform, steirischer herbst, Donaufestival, SPIELART, Kampnagel Sommerfestival, several times at IMPULSE) and at large venues (including HAU, Mousonturm, PACT, FFT, Hellerau, Kaserne Basel, Münchner Kammerspiele), and tour internationally (in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, UK, Poland, France, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Tunisia, the West Bank and India).
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