We Can Be Heroes - Eine Oper in 8 Räumen

We Can Be Heroes - Eine Oper in 8 Räumen

02.06.2021 - 01.08.2021

What if an opera did not take place separately on a stage, but could instead be accessed physically as an audience member? What if opera were not defined by its apparatus? What if the audience members themselves became the heroes of such an opera?

We Can Be Heroes is a group exhibition with seven internationally renowned composers and sound artists who, under the direction of Hannes Seidl, have transformed the rooms of basis e.V. into accessible opera scenery. With the aid of individual live performers, the audience act as the heroes of the staging and playfully manoeuvre themselves through the chronologically and dynamically coordinated scenes. Each artist creates their own scene. Through intermezzi, retracing, and acoustic memory, these scenes are interconnected as well as temporally and dynamically coordinated with each other, so that a heterophonic and complex work emerges through which the visitor must move as though in a video game. Those experiencing the show are however not alone, since performers bring the spaces to life too. They act as counterparts to the heroes, as initiators of particular events, as side-kicks, bouncers, instrumentalists, or as silent observers, who sometimes either face the visitors or are self-absorbed in making music.

We Can Be Heroes is a coproduction of Hannes Seidl & Briefkastenfirma GbR, basis e.V. and Eschborn K, supported by Kulturfonds RheinMain, Musikfonds and the The City of Frankfurt Department for Culture.