CHEAP: The Word Falls

The Word Falls, a performance by Berlin-based art collective CHEAP, unfolds as a collaborative work featuring fog, music, wrestling, poetry and law. While engaging with poems and court rulings, the performance explores the mechanisms of complicity and the tragedy of the word.


The Nasmé Ensemble’s interpretations of classical works – from European chamber music to Arab and Palestinian compositions – and Bakr Khleifi’s virtuosic oud performance meet CHEAP’s signature punk aesthetic. With urgency and clarity, they burst through the fog of denialism.


“Words do things, we hear. But what are they doing now? Why don’t they do the things we need them to do? Would it have been more effective had we not used them in the first place? No. Don’t get us wrong. We’re not anti-word. We’re not Anti-Word Commissioners. It’s the words that have gone all anti. The word falls. We’re left with music and poetry, the letter of the law and a string quintet, a little ethics and some manufacturing equipment, a swing in the fog and nine horn speakers.” – CHEAP

Credits

CHEAP

• Vaginal Davis – Performance
  
• Daniel Hendrickson – Performance
  
• Susanne Sachsse – Concept, Text, Performance
  
• Marc Siegel – Text, Performance
  

• Michael Barenboim and the Nasmé Ensemble, Bakr Khleifi – Music, Performance
  
• Richard Gabriel Gersch, Nele Ruckelhausen – Performance
  
• Martin Siemann – Video, Light
  
• Pola Sieverding – Live Video
  
• Boris Wilsdorf – Sound
  
• Christian Fritzenwanker – Make-up
  

In Arabic, Nasmé, or نسمة, means “a breeze of air”. With five musicians – students and graduates of the Barenboim-Said Academy – from different regions of Palestine, Michael Barenboim founded the Nasmé Ensemble. The ensemble is dedicated to both European chamber music and repertoire from Palestine, the musicians’ homeland.


Bakr Khleifi is an oud player based in Berlin. His music reflects his long journey in different music disciplines, in particular Maqamic music and Western Classical music. His compositions and style of playing combines the melodic progressions and modulations often heard in Maqamic music. It includes complex and diverse Rhythms, often accompanied by harmony and dynamic playing.


The art collective CHEAP was founded in Berlin in 2001 by Daniel Hendrickson, Susanne Sachsse, and Marc Siegel. CHEAP’s work includes performances, videos, festivals, concerts, installations and radio shows. Vaginal Davis has worked with the group from its early days, first as a guest, then as a crucial collective member.


CHEAP: The Word Falls is curated by Nora-Swantje Almes, Curator Live Programme and Outreach, with Edessa Malke, Curatorial Fellow Live Programme and Outreach, and Savannah Thümler, Fellow to the Director.



(In German and English)