Podcast
Ants are a „secret world power“ – dumb individually, but supersmart as a collective: a „superorganism“. They make decisions without an approving authority. And without a process of deliberation. But maybe there is more to learn from ants. andcompany&Co. is in the process of transforming into the ANTCOMPANY. Recent research has shown that ants play an active role in the natural process of „weathering“. Thus they could help to cool down the planet. And to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground. The time for theorizing is over, time to start to experiment! Time for ANTiFA ACTION AGAINST FOSSIL FASCISM! Two species, one demand: CANCEL INDUSTRIAL CO²!
Part of Episode XV: “Parliaments of Things and Beings”
With Eva von Redecker, Alexander Karschnia / andcompany&Co. & Florian Malzacher
4. April 2022 – brut Vienna / Austria
Biography
From Lenin to Lennon, von Karl Marx to Karl May … With excessive puns and exuberant pop-quotations, andcompany&Co. from Berlin has been producing unmistakable political theater for almost 20 years: communism, capitalism, colonialism – and the politics of the day are in the mix. The group’s name already is a manifesto in a nutshell: Since their formation in Frankfurt/M. in 2003 by Alexander Karschnia, Nicola Nord and Sascha Sulimma, they have created a vast network of artistic and political collaborators. All works are developed in co-authorship with all participants. Like no other group of their generation, they combine dada-humour, pop-culture, historical seriousness and political activism: from the gold diggers‘ city Mahagonny that Brecht described to the technological „singularity“ that Heiner Müller feared in his late life, from the Stalinist nightmare to Walt Disney’s dream world, from the mythological roots of Europe to the contemporary situation at the borders – all of andcompany’s works are trips in the manifold meaning of the word (territorial, historical, psychological). Next to performance pieces in the context of the independent scene (HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Forum Freies Theater FFT, Mousonturm etc.) and lecture-concerts they produce theater plays with ensembles of state theaters (Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg Platz) and radio-plays. Their works have been shown on festivals all around the world from Brussels to Shanghai.