Systems are speculative. That is to say, systems are emergent phenomena, not artefacts of pure intentionality or design. They exceed their blueprints, overflowing the architectures of control humans try to impose on them. Systems are relational, processual, recursive, fungal, and promiscuous, taking shape through encounters, constraints, and the entanglement of forces beyond human „will“.
Bayo Akomolafe

„Bones“ is an immersive performance by the choreographer Fabrice Mazliah and the curator Claude Jansen. Together with a team of Namibian and German artists, they weave analogue, spiritual and digital media together to form a multisensory experience. Based on research into an ngoma drum looted from Namibia and the 8,000-year-old bones of a shaman kept in Germany, „Bones“ draws attention to the knowledge inherent in bones and how people are connected to their surroundings and their ancestors. Supported by AR (Augmented Reality) goggles and digital sound modulation, the performers create liminal spaces between science and speculation, performance and ritual, mankind and matter. A landscape of bodies and sounds is generated in which the rhythms of heartbeats, drums, birds and trees merge. „Bones“ invites the audience to embark on a sensory journey and opens a space in which past and present, spirituality and technology relate to each other in visible and invisible ways.

Premiere in Hamburg Oberhafen, Halle 4E, the 5th of July 2025

Team:
Humans
Konzept und Künstlerische Leitung: Claude Jansen & Fabrice Mazliah
Co-Kreation: Tuli Mekondjo (Raum und Performance), I-Fang Lin (Performance)
AR/VR Konzept und Programmierung: Norbert Pape
Sound Konzept und Performance: Johannes Helberger
Licht Design: Michael Lentner
Assistenz: Anngret Schultze
Assistenz / Koordination: Katalina Götz
Produktion: Anna Hennecke und Leonie Niss
Kuratorium Dancing Instruments: Claude Jansen

Non-Humans
Looted oBjEctS, Sculls, Salt, Totems, Owls, Wind, Headsets AR Quest 3, Polar Band H10, Bones, Lions, Trees, Earth, Tracker, Ancestors, Drums

Thanks to: Goethe Institut Namibia I MARKK Hamburg I Landesmuseum Halle I Max-Planck-Institut I Stadt Frankfurt I Crossings e.V.