Landscapes & bodies is an immersive performance course that deals with the political, social and ecological consequences of the mining industry. Mining fundamentally transforms individuals, groups of people, entire nations. The series is composed of four productions developed in collaboration with artists, theorists and miners from Indonesia, DR Congo, Leipzig and the Ruhr Region, all dealing with the local and global influences of mining on landscapes, living areas and societies. The first part GOLD addresses the practices of gold and copper mining in Indonesia. COAL deals with the simultaneity of former and contemporary energy spaces in Leipzig’s brown coal district.

Gold
Since the 1960s, the US mining company Freeport has been transforming McMoRanden, a 5000 m high grass mountain in West Papua, into the world’s largest copper and gold mine. Outside this special zone, thousands of local miners filter the mercury-containing tailings in the riverbed for gold dust. And at the mouth of the river, the Freeport port competes with the living environment of the indigenous Komoro communities. The sub-project “Gold” approaches these three spatial practices together with Indonesian artists.

Coal
Numerous villages in the south of Leipzig had to give way to huge shovel excavators in the GDR. Today, the re-naturalised Leipziger Neuseenland is a popular local recreation area and, with its residential areas on the banks of the artificial lakes, attracts middle-class people in particular for new settlements. “Coal” deals with the simultaneity of past and present energy spaces in the Leipzig lignite mining area.

Dramaturgy: Sarah Israel | Film, Video: Daniel Kötter | Set Design: Elisa Limberg | Performance: Agustina Helena Kobogau, Darlane Litaay, Ikbal Lubys | Sound Design: Marcin Lenarczyk | Production Assistant: Melanie Albrecht | Location Manager: Yonri Revolt | Management Indonesia: Ethnictro | Production: ehrliche arbeit – freelance office for culture.

A Kötter / Israel / Limberg production, co-produced by the residency program of the Schauspiel Leipzig, PACT Zollverein Essen and Ethnictro. Funded by the Doppelpass Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and supported by the Goethe Institut’s International Coproduction Fund and Goethe Institut Jakarta.