THEATRICAL TOUR

"He thought we would die out": A theatrical tour through the exhibition "Country bin pull'em. Looking back together“ with Götz Lautenbach (premiere)

The 80-minute scenic tour in ”Country bin pull'em" with actor Götz Lautenbach was developed especially for the exhibition and will have its world premiere on May 8 at the Weltkulturen Museum at Schaumainkai 29.

In a mixture of documentary theater and exhibition tour, the audience follows the traces of the expedition of today's Frobenius Institute and the Weltkulturen Museum in 1938 to the Kimberley region of Northwest Australia. The route leads through the rooms of the museum, the adjacent Metzler Park and finally into the exhibition.

The title of the piece alludes to a quote from Traditional Owner Pete O'Connor. He refers to the report of the expedition leader Helmut Petri: “Perhaps he thought we would no longer have knowledge of this powerful knowledge today because he thought we would die out; but we still have this knowledge...”. What is meant here are secret and sacred cultural practices and content in Petri's report. The play reflects the research situation in the field, the colonial conditions of the expedition and the ethics of collecting and research in a supposedly doomed “Dying World in Northwest Australia”, as the report is titled.

In view of the watercolors and photographs of the rock art galleries created in 1938, as well as the diverse other cultural testimonies of the Wanjina Wunggurr, the indigenous population of the Kimberley, a compilation of original historical texts, such as the research and expedition reports, but also from contemporary, often indigenous sources, is presented.

True to the subtitle of the exhibition “A shared look back”, the underlying text collage by Götz Lautenbach attempts to place quotes from the records of Helmut Petri and his colleagues in dialog with the voices of Traditional Owners from the past and present, such as Janet Oobagooma and Donny Woolagoodja, who critically examine the testimonies of the 1938 expedition.

Götz Lautenbach works as a freelance actor, director and playwright. One focus of his work is the development and performance of theater formats in museum spaces, historical buildings, libraries and research sites. He is a lecturer for scenic writing, acting and directing at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. 

Further performances:

Thursday, May 22, Friday May 23, Thursday, June 5, Friday, June 6 and Friday, June 27, each at 7 p.m.

The event is supported by the Weltkulturen Freundeskreis.

Admission: 15 euros, reduced 7.50 euros
Venue: Weltkulturen Museum, Schaumainkai 29