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Recording: 2018-10-15 , Sophiensaele (Video © Walter Bickmann)

K.A.U.&Wdowik

Return of a Goddess

Sophiensæle

Production Details / Press Releases

A goddess, two statues and a double theft: over 200 years ago Alexander von Humboldt brought a statue of the goddess Chicomecoatl from Mexico to Berlin where it became part of the ethnological collection. In 2018 K.A.U.& Wdowik travelled back to Mexico with replicas of the statue in order to create a new narrative while on the trails of the old tale. Return of a Goddess is simultaneously a cinematic travel reportage and scenic fantasy about colonial museum inheritance.

CHALCHIUHTLICUE-CHICOMECOATL Deity of water and corn, exact place and time of the statue’s creation unknown, the piece was brought from México to Berlin by Alexander von Humboldt (1769- 1859).

EPOCH Postclassic (16th Century) ORIGIN México, central highlands CULTURE Aztecs MATERIAL tuff stone MEASUREMENTS 37 x 17 x 16 cm WEIGHT 6,84 kg IDENT.NR. IV Ca 2 COLLECTION Ethnological Museum Berlin | America

1804 México City/Puebla/Veracruz – Spanish Colonial Empire. Alexander von Humboldt travels through México.

1805 Berlin, Prussia – Humboldt returns to the Berlin City Palace of the Prussian King. Among his souvenirs for the king is an idole aztèque, en basalte – the stone statue of Chalchiuhtlicue-Chicomecoatl.

1950 Berlin, GDR – The socialist party decides to tear down the remains of the Berlin City Palace, which had burned down largely in the 2nd World War to build the palace of the republic.

2013 Berlin, Germany – A copy of the Prussian Berlin City Palace is built on the museum island, under the name of Humboldtforum. From 2019, it should hold the ethnological collection of Berlin. The statue of Chalchiuhtlicue-Chicomecoatl is lying in the cellar of this collection in Dahlem, Berlin, waiting to be moved to Humboldtforum.

2018 Warszawa, Poland – Two copies of the statue Chalchiuhtlicue-Chicomecoatl are built out of resin by sculptor Bartosz Sandecki.

2018 México City/Puebla/Veracruz, México – With these two copies K.A.U.&Wdowik and the mexican artists Daniel Ulacia and Pia Siliceo Trueba travel through Mexico on the reverse path of Alexander v. Humboldt. From Veracruz via Puebla, the Popocatépetl to Teotihuacan and the Templo Mayor in México City. They meet anthropologists, artists, activists, journalists, healers and worshippers in search for the origin and destiny of the copy of the statue of Chalchiuhtlicue- Chicomecoatl. During the trip, they are accompanied by thunderstorms, floods, hail, earthquakes and vulcano eruptions. One copy remains in México City.

2018 Berlin, Germany – The second copy is brought to Sophiensæle, where K.A.U.&Wdowik, Lea Kieffer and Rocio Marano Miguez stage a performance for it.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1239

Cast & Credits

INTERVIEWS WITH: María Antonia Molina Chico/ Cuetzalan, Moises Ramos Rodríguez/ Popocatépetl, Antonio Analco Sevilla/ Popocatépetl, Inés Campos Hernandez, Iztaccíhuatl, Arturo Meza Gutierrez, Ricardo Zárraga Nuñez, Dr. José Alejando Villalobos Pérez, Cesar Martínez Silva, Ximena Labra, Rurru Mipanochia/ CDMX

CONCEPT, REALIZATION: Philipp Bergmann, Thea Reifler, Matthias Schönijahn, Małgorzata Wdowik
DANCE, PERFORMANCE: Lea Kieffer, Rocio Marano
CAMERA, TRANSLATION: Daniel Ulacia
COMPANY MANAGEMENT MX: Pia Siliceo Trueba
LIGHT: Laura Eggert
COSTUMES: Wsiura
COMPANY MANAGEMENT GER: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro

A production by K.A.U.&Wdowik in coproduction with SOPHIENSÆLE.
Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and supported by the PACT Zollverein, Gessnerallee Zürich and Goethe Institut México.

Sophiensæle

Sophienstraße 18
10178 Berlin

sophiensaele.com
Map

Tickets: (030) 283 52 66

Video Documentation

The video documentation is produced on behalf of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. The purpose of this contract is to document productions in the field of contemporary dance in Berlin. The master recordings are archived by the University Library of the Berlin University of Arts. Copies of the recordings on DVD are available for viewing exclusively in the reference collections of the following archives (at media desks in these institutions):

University Library of the Berlin University of Arts
Mediathek für Tanz und Theater des Internationalen Theaterinstituts / Mime Centrum Berlin
Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT)

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