The Color Scheme

It depicts a dialogue between two African American exiles—the poet and the philosopher—with their meeting in the park becoming a broader reflection on the relationship between the aesthetics of the Black avant-garde and the burgeoning political movements of the 20th century.

Commissioned by the Hartwig Art Foundation and Performa, the work celebrates its European premiere near the actual setting of the action, the historic Siegesallee, and will be presented as part of the closing weekend of the exhibition *Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations. From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).

Just a few steps from today’s HKW, the historic statues of Kant and Goethe offer Dean the opportunity to critically examine nationalist and imperial monuments and serve as the backdrop for the characters’ rendezvous. Drawing on an actual encounter between the philosopher Alain Locke and the poet Claude McKay, Dean refrains from heroization by leaving her figures nameless and using them as a means to explore a conflict between political and aesthetic perspectives. Their differences of opinion—on nationalism, the role of art, and the political and economic changes necessary to make life worth living—contrast with the monumental historical pretensions underlying the design of the Tiergarten.

In the 1920s, the park served as a backdrop for Prussian imperialist narratives—and was at the same time a central meeting place for Berlin’s sexually diverse scene. The historical tensions are further intensified by the depiction of the Siegesallee—the boulevard laid out by Kaiser Wilhelm II, which was adorned with monarchist sculptures, later relocated by the Nazis to make room for large military parades, and finally completely leveled after the war.

Dean captured the remaining, broken statues, currently housed at the Spandau Citadel, via 3D scanning so that production designer Filip Kostic could digitally reconstruct the park as it appeared in 1923.

Accompanied by a composition by Evan Zierk featuring intonarumori—the experimental sound machines invented by the Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo—a theatrical space emerges where history, form, and speculation converge.

The theater stage also serves as a film set: the actors are captured in real time within the virtual recreation of the Tiergarten, and these recordings are simultaneously projected live onto the stage. In this way, the present is embedded within a historical framework in which the “truth” of the encounter reveals itself as a projected image. Far from a flawless portrayal, The Color Scheme shatters the debris of history that floods the here and now.

• Director / Screenplay: Aria Dean
• The Poet: Jordan Coley
• The Philosopher: Zaid Arshad
• Composer: Evan Zierk
• Music: Seany Nuelle, Ben Cohen
• Cinematography: Alex Huggins
• Camera Operators: Rhys Scarabosio, Owen Smith Clark
• Virtual Production Design: Filip Kostic
• Technical Director: Theresa Tomi Faison
• Costume Design: Natasha Simchowitz
• Production: Vic Brooks
• Co-production: Andy Rickert
• Assistant Director: Nina Diwan

Presented by the Hartwig Art Foundation

In English. A German translation will be available online as a text.