The Body Memory - Ein Musiktheater (Trailer)
Channel: Hang Su Composer
Date: 02/05/2020

THE BODY MEMORY
Performance on 16-18 November 2020 in Leipzig
LOFFT-DAS THEATER

56 Min.
LANGUAGE Germany / Chinese

Concept / Music Composition / Stage Design: Hang Su 
Text: Daniel Schmidt, Hang Su
Costume:  Hannah Josephine Gebhardt

QIN Hang Su 
VOCAL Ludwig Obst 
DANCE Tizo All 
CLARINET Richard Haynes 
PERCUSSION Sabrina Ma 
TRUMPET Paul Hübner 

“In a folk tale from 17th century Fujian (China), a soldier is in love with a provincial official, and spies on him to see him naked. The official has the soldier tortured and killed, but he returns from the dead in the form of a leveret (a rabbit in its first year) in the dream of a village elder. The leveret demands that local men build a temple to him where they can burn incense in the interest of “affairs of men”.” (Hu Tian Bao – the rabbit god, Wikipedia)

We created scenes according to the story of rabbit god to our music theatre project “the body memory”. It dedicates to 2 beloved homosexual artists in the time of AIDS epidemic in 1990’s — Jürgen Baldiga, a freelance photographer; Ronald Schernikau, an Author.

A journey of memory between China and West Berlin in music, images and movement. The legend of Hu Tianbao hits the Berlin of the time of reunification. Executed because he loved men, he is transferred to the body of a rabbit in the Chinese underworld and elevated to the deity of homosexuals. The focus is on two men who worked on different sides of the Berlin Wall. Jürgen Baldiga was the photographer of West Berlin's queer subculture. However, the author Ronald M. Schernikau was one of the last to emigrate to the GDR. Both died from the consequences of their HIV infection. In the appropriation of the Chinese-German composer Hang Su, Baldiga's graphic sketches are transformed into graphic scores. Not only the sound, but also the body movement of the performing musicians are inscribed in them.

A production by Hang Su + MAM.manufaktur für aktuelle musik. Studio at LOFFT - DAS THEATER in context of Werkstattmacher e.V. Supported by the culture office of city Leipzig. Supported by the Initiative Neue Musik Berlin e. V. and the Musikfonds e. V. with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. With many thanks for the support to the Gay Museum Berlin, Aron Neubert, Thomas Keck and Ellen Schernikau.