Dreamland

In the ‘Dreamland’ section of the park, European cities such as Venice and landscapes such as the Swiss Alps were recreated for the first time.

Inspired by this, the fascinating miniature world by Théâtre Rude Ingénierie from Québec presents a park comprising a multitude of electronically controlled objects:

Visitors wander like giants around the fantastical island with its thousands of mechanisms, which come together to form ever-changing tableaux whilst also serving as sound generators and loudspeakers.

The following events will take place during opening hours:

Saturday, 31 October, 5.00 pm–7.00 pm

Opening ceremony: Welcome to the model world! Live performance, talks and encounters We are celebrating the opening of Théâtre Rude Ingénierie’s mechanical landscape with a festive gathering in a manipulated reality:

Guests will gather around the enormous robotic model of a world from which we all originate and of which people dream, whilst the dramatic soundscape of the mechanical island blends with dreamy hits from times long past.

A happy hour opening ceremony with drinks and snacks.

In cooperation with the Office of the Government of Québec in Berlin.

Monday, 2 November, 17:00–19:00

Round Table in spoken English

The 20th century created colossal dream machines designed for entertainment. ‘Dreamland’ takes the audience back to its origins: to the modern entertainment industry, which wired the nervous system with electric light and enchanted crowds, and sold dreams back as a ticket. A century later, people can barely distinguish entertainment from the industry itself – the enchantment itself has become a business model.

The question of whether people can reclaim entertainment is at the heart of this round table. Taking as their starting point the installation, which resurrects the amusement park as a toy city, a fairground of ruins, and a workshop for possible worlds, the panellists ask whether they can still design a world that is fairer and freer.

Tuesday, 3 November, 17:00–19:00

Lecture performance in spoken English

In 1903, Georg Simmel diagnosed the metropolis with overstimulated nerves. In the same year, Luna Park on Coney Island switched on its electric skyline. For Rem Koolhaas, Coney Island was a ‘foetal Manhattan’, a laboratory in which the modern city can experiment before taking shape in reality.

This lecture performance, followed by a discussion, seeks to listen for what the ruins remember and what they might yet become. It asks what keeps the world turning, and understands ‘entertainment’ in its Latin and Old French etymological sense as ‘cohesion’.

(without spoken language)