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Performances, exhibition, concerts, installations, magazine launch

With ‘You Can Only Kill Us Once’, Trauma Bar und Kino presents the first major European exhibition of The Opioid Crisis Lookbook (OCL), curated by magazine founders Dustin Cauchi, Dasha Zaharova and Berlin-based curator Samuel Staples.


The scenographic exhibition shows four rooms that architect Liam Denhamer modelled on scenographic drawings by Kurt Cobain from the 1993 Nirvana video Heart Shaped Box.

Archival video works and images merge with new works in different times and scenographic spaces - including a crooner in Cobain's poppy field, a huge tarpaulin structure reminiscent of homeless camps in Los Angeles, as well as archive material and never-before-seen videos.

The exhibition is accompanied by a soundtrack composed especially for this production by Bill Kouligas & Marco Freivogel and live music as well as performative elements by artists from the USA and Europe. The immersive neo-grunge experience invites visitors to become part of the OCL multiverse. Kurt Cobain is considered the most famous early victim of the opium crisis, which was caused in part by the Sackler family's pharmaceutical company.
family pharmaceutical company.


Background
In 1996, the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma launched the drug OxyContin and falsely marketed it as a ‘safe’ opioid painkiller, even though it was highly addictive. Purdue Pharma aggressively pushed for the deregulation of opioids, which expanded the use of OxyContin from the treatment of chronic pain to any type of pain. Fuelled by billions in profits, Purdue Pharma flooded the market while ill-informed doctors prescribed the drug nationwide. Deregulation, bribery and incessant marketing led to massive overprescribing and triggered the deadliest health crisis in US history: Millions of victims, 100,000 overdose deaths annually. Since 2021, 2.1 million people have become addicted to opioids and 200 Americans die every day from overdoses, while heroin is in short supply and synthetic opioids are filling the gaps and both accounts and cemeteries are growing rapidly.

Kurt Cobain, a cultural icon until 1994, symbolised the transition from the pre-opioid crisis in the US to the crisis itself. Studies predict that at least one million more people will die from the opioid crisis by 2030 if radical changes are not made.

The Opioid Crisis Lookbook was founded in 2019 by Dustin Cauchi in response to the North American opioid crisis. OCL aims to document the crisis by focusing on marginalised narratives and reinterpreting dominant narratives by destigmatising addiction and celebrating the monstrous and sublime cultures that the crisis has produced.


EVENTS

Opening: Friday, 1 November 2024, 8 pm
TOBIAS SPICHTIG, LUCY (COOPER B HANDY), TARANEH, EVANORA UNLIMITED
Admission 20 euros (box office)
Open Day
On Saturday, 9 November, the production can be experienced free of charge between 4 and 8 p.m.
Closing event: Saturday, 16 November 2024, from 10 pm
with COMET, RABIT, BILL KOULIGAS & MARCO FREIVOGEL, CRYSTALLMESS and DJ MANTIS
Admission 20 euros (box office)

Additional information