Where City Maintenance Company (MPO) has repaired its fleet for decades, Nowy Teatr will soon open its cultural centre. Neues Theater by Daniel Koetter takes this situation as its starting point to investigate in artistic way the representation of work and the work of representation. The workshop hall is a theater for several socially distinct modes of acting. Five mechanics, five actors and the director, two theoreticians and a film crew are performing their tasks while we are witnessing it. Or we are actors ourselves? New work by Daniel Koetter deals with the society and theater liaisons. This is a performance, but its duration is measured by a camera. One shoot.

Directed by: Daniel Koetter

Curator: Anna Ptak

Assistant director: Ewa Kozik

MPO workshop hall

Madalińskiego 10/16, Warsaw

Saturday, 12 Nov 2011, at 6pm and 8 pm

Sunday, 13 Nov 2011, at 6pm and 8 pm

Duration: 45 minutes

The entrance is free but it is necessary to register. In order to subscribe, please send the e-mail with the name, surname and contact telephone (due to the character of the performance which is the film shooting at the same time, the organizers need to have the possibility of contacting the audience members). Register until 9 Nov 2011 at: csw.neues@gmail.com.

About the artist:

Daniel Koetter has been implementing experimental approaches to the formats of theatrical and musical performance, collaborative models for artists and non-artists, video art in the context of different formats of presentation – exhibitions, live performances, film, with a particular interest in multi-channel video installations and alternative concert formats.

His art projects, in which he takes on the role of director, filmmaker, researcher or composer, relate to the issues of the art system in the public sphere, of what is the network of actors which activate the understanding and role of images, institutions and artistic practice. His structural approach in filmmaking broadens the understanding of documentary and it is a constant investigation of modes of perception through which the public can explore the limitations of genre-specific habits of narration.

Daniel Koetter (b. 1975) lives and works in Berlin. Between 2008 and 2011 he developped the video- and opera-performance trilogy on artistic labour - Arbeit und Freizeit. His music theatre performances in collaboration with composer Hannes Seidl are shown on international festivals like Venice Biennale, Musica d’hoy Madrid and others. A new series of installations, films, and discursive work on urban and socio-political conditions of performativity has been developed since 2010 under the title staats-theater: Lagos/Teheran/Berlin.

Neues Theater is co-produced by Centre for Contemporary Art. Ujazdowski Castle and Goethe Institut, Warschau, in collaboration with Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Oczyszczania and Nowy Teatr. This project was developped during the residency at A-I-R Laboratory (CCA) supported by Warsaw City.