Songs of Hope and Despair. Performed by Bundschuh, Fish, Fox Tail, Rainbow, Dead Drummer, Muse-Leaving Germany and by other agencies

A group of strangely costumed heroes set out on a journey to find a miracle in this absurdist lo-fi musical roadmovie by the politically engaged art collective Chto Delat. Their experimental flashmob, staged in the former German mining town of Hettstedt, channels the political anxieties of our times.

The politically engaged Russian emigré collective Chto Delat (meaning “What is to be done?” in Russian) goes for Brechtian alienation in their multimedia projects that sit somewhere between experimental cinema, installation work and arty flashmobs. Founded in 2003 in Saint Petersburg, Chto Delat brings together artists, writers, philosophers and choreographers to interrogate the complexities of collective memory and the politics of everyday life.

For their highly experimental roadmovie Songs of Hope and Despair, the Russian exiles took inspiration from two significant historical artworks: Werner Tübke’s The Panorama of the Peasants’ War and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film The Niklashausen Journey. Staged in the former German mining town of Hettstedt, their unabashedly lo-fi film is conceived as an improvised fairy tale that reflects on failed revolutions, ecology and the anxieties of our current days. It’s a magical game and absurdist musical in one, in which a group of strangely costumed heroes set out on a journey to find a miracle. Raising the question: what does a miracle even look like in politically dire times like these?

– Hugo Emmerzael

• 

• 

• 

•