Memory Distortion. M I X T A P E

Nicoleta Esinencu, recently awarded the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Prize, returns to HAU with her collective teatru-spălătorie from Chișinău.

The starting point for “Memory Distortion. M I X T A P E” is initially erased, overwritten, and rediscovered audio tracks—cassettes containing voices and fragments—in which personal and political history overlap. From these traces, teatru-spălătorie develops a polyphonic, musical-performative collage about distorted memory, the political rewriting of history, and the question of what remains audible from the past.

Who decides what is recorded, what is preserved, and what is forgotten? Individual biographies intertwine with fascism, war, migration, neoliberal transformation, and exploitation. Memory appears not as a reliable archive, but as a contested space, marked by omissions, ideological frameworks, and deliberate rewriting.

Through musical loops, repetitions, and breaks, past and present shift into one another. In the process, neo-colonial and power-political dynamics within Europe become visible. With the sharpness, humor, and political urgency characteristic of the collective, an evening emerges exploring how memory becomes a field of conflict.

(with German and English surtitles / Moldavian Romanian / Russian)