AKTION MENSCH
Wohin Gen?
Video direction for monolithic projection
Since October 2002, the public had been invited to pose questions on the highly complex subject of bioethics, and in a short period of time, the website www.1000fragen.de received several thousand submissions. The questions took to the stage in 2003 and 2005, as the theatrical production „Where To, Gene?“ tackled various bioethical themes in eleven scenes, ranging from prenatal diagnostics to stem cell research and assisted dying. The staging was based exclusively on authentic questions from the 1000 Questions Project.
Fifteen dancers, musicians, and actors—including renowned artists such as Manfred Zapatka, Giulietta Odermatt, and Monika Herwig—offered a theatrical forum for these inquiries. In monologues and dialogues, fears and hopes were articulated. Whether during pregnancy gymnastics, philosophical conversations, at the negotiating table, amidst apocalyptic delusions, or on one’s deathbed, the scenic concept (directed by Fred Berndt) navigated witty and profound, melancholic, entertaining, absurd, and contemplative trains of thought.
The audience bore witness to successful and failing attempts at understanding, where questions only ever gave rise to new questions.