HABITAT

The HABITAT is a performative imaginative space of at least three years on the disturbed coexistence of plants, animals and humans. From a plant, animal and human perspective, the HABITAT formulates the social problem of under which conditions a successful coexistence is possible – between demarcation and proximity. In doing so, HABITAT attempts to reconcile scientific findings with current social science approaches. The aim of HABITAT is to construct a growing and evolving stage installation that enables plants, animals and people to live together. The highest possible quality of stay for plants, animals and people is the aim of the installation and is tested and made tangible through choreography.

– The HABITAT as an expression of ecological urgency

For Hannes Schwertfeger, the HABITAT is a performative imaginative format that is intended to illustrate the ecological urgency and necessary climate adaptation.

– The HABITAT in the nativity play

The nativity play provided a stage to celebrate the assertiveness of life in adverse circumstances and the emergence of a new place of refuge: HABITAT is a performative imaginative space for the disturbed coexistence of plants, animals and humans.

 

It will be a place where disturbances and collaborations within coexistence are negotiated as concretely as possible in order to make them tangible within the framework of an easily understandable and comprehensible choreography. With an open outcome.

 

– The HABITAT as a feel-good place

For Nina Malotta, the HABITAT is a large play area for nature, an open space for trees and a stage for beautiful art projects with radiance. The HABITAT offers her a place to come together – simply a place to feel good.

Which conditions enable a successful coexistence between plants, animals and humans? How can the dialogue about a disturbed coexistence be choreographed? And how does a scenery imagined by the visitors help here?

 

With “Strolling the Future”, the HABITAT reveals a stage for a socially critical play. A stage on which the coexistence of plants, animals and humans is problematised and choreographed as a performative space of experience.

 

The HABITAT as a lively structure of ephemeral contexts – associations, reflections and feelings construct a ephemeral world of experience that is continuously varied or newly composed due to numerous external and internal circumstances.

– HABITAT as a tension between nature and culture

 

Florian Feisel sees the HABITAT as a cycle, as a place of discourse about active and mindful living. He hopes for a considerate revival of this space, where the already existing is valued and nurtured.

 

“I hope for the revitalisation of this area, which is absurd because the area is alive. But a revitalisation of us humans, so that we can be more active on this space, but at the same time not displace what already exists here.”

A leftover piece of asphalt seals the ground. It is noisily perforated and filled with substrate. Dandelion seeds populate the now holey asphalt. In the long term, they will break up the sealed surface and allow the soil to breathe more and more. All the work is acoustically recorded and exploited…

HABITAT addresses the contradiction between the protection of nature and species and an urban life with as few restrictions as possible. The fact that animals, plants and humans share a very narrow space in the installation is accompanied by a high potential for disturbance. The dramaturgy of the performative piece is intended to translate this potential for disturbance into a concrete, physically perceptible space of experience. We want to create this space with the help of different disciplines. To this end, all disciplines will be viewed and questioned through the same spatial filter. Artists as well as botanists, visitors as well as architects. Our first common working level is a yellow table…

The fact that dynamics develop between different species within ecosystems can be seen through the research discipline of disturbance ecology. What aesthetic and functional possibilities of interaction between plants, animals and humans arise from these moments of disturbance is what we want to investigate using the HABITAT.

 

In the first step, we will examine the soil. Soil samples will be taken from different places on the site and examined for their nutrient content, pollutants and microbial respiration. So we take samples from sealed surfaces and freshly backfilled areas, between rubble or under brambles…

HABITAT is a transdisciplinary, performative research project funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart, the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V., the IBA2027 (Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart GmbH) as well as the Kunstverein Wagenhalle e.V. and Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG.

Artistic direction: Bureau Baubotanik
Choreography: Nina Malotta and Samuel Hof
Dramaturgy: Florian Feisel (Institute for Performing Arts at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart) in collaboration with Paula Kohlmann and Martina Grohmann (Theater Rampe Stuttgart)
Individual artist: Rebecca Hennel
Stage installation: Bureau Baubotanik in collaboration with botanist Sebastian Becker
Engineering accompaniment: Matthias Rudolph (professor for building technology and climate-appropriate design at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart)
Botanical and ecopolitical accompaniment: Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU Group Stuttgart) and Robert Gliniars (University of Hohenheim)