Geht es dir gut?

Pollesch/Hinrichs

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1,5 metres

1,5 degrees

1,5 nuclear briefcases

2 x 1,5 nuclear briefcases

 

I hope there won’t be another catastrophe coming up next week. Though what could possibly come next? Nuclear threat – done. Climate crisis – done. Pandemic – done. There’s only one or two things left now – meteorite impact and extraterrestrials. Or maybe, God speaking to us in person. Or the miracle of you coming back to me.That would drive me to tears instantly.Well, you know what I mean. Not all hope is lost yet.

I can’t see future generations; I can’t see any faces. A face would at least represent a direct offer for talk. Though maybe the whole thing just reminds me of another fact: I can’t look into your face anymore. A missile, a war tells me it’s ridiculous to talk about you and me. But was not your face, and the offer for talk it promised the source of justice, compassion and love – extending to abstract future generations and other creatures on this planet?

Sitting next to a child, one might imagine that there could be one, maybe two future generations, and why not a third and a fourth, on which I’ll never set eyes? And a fifth that will never have heard of us? Is this unimaginable? We have to overcome the limitations of our selfishness to imagine this.

Will anyone, among those who haven’t been born yet, have the inclination to bring their face or body into the world so you can’t get around them? Will any of the as-yet unborns still have the desire to interfere? Will any deoxyribonucleic acid still be prepared to undertake the job of infinitely copying itself for a person to be able to put their head above the parapet?

It’s essential that future generations participate in shaping the world. Although they’ll probably be different than we expected them to be. And we, too, shouldn’t be the ones to recklessly hold in store harm for them in the future.

The future, as it is, is foreseeable. We ought to make it unforeseeable once again. We ought to transform: to become the ones who politely ask the next generation first. The future, as it is, is a beaten track.

My therapist said that you won’t come back. She knows all the stories about you and me. And she said, rather than concerning myself with you, I’m supposed to take care of myself now. I guess this piece of advice could be transferred to future generations as well. I know how it feels to not be able to shoot into a face, since a face is always automatically an offer for talk. Only now this includes the faces that haven’t yet been born. But as it is, every one of us here is shooting right into these faces. It’s like you create the shape of a face with sand on a beach contaminated with microplastics, and as you’ve finished the face in the sand, you realize that is has signs of bullet shots all over. And the next wave will come to wash it away. But the face in the sand doesn’t vanish.

The face mask brings to the bearer’s notice the fact that this planet lacks atmosphere. And it’s true, it’s lacking. We’re like aliens landed on a foreign planet. For those who look at the mask on the bearer, it lets them know that when two strangers wearing masks meet, they won’t be able to grant an advance on trustworthiness and confidence, since, by definition, this would require the abandonment of any camouflage and arms. It’s just not possible, see Kyiv.

And now they’re sitting here donning face masks, and – *snap* – the next moment they might be wearing gas masks.

Never have so many died such a lonely death in a war.

 

TO BE DELIVERED TO POSTERITY (TO RECALIBRATE RESPONSIBILITY).

I really wish I lived in more present times.

The high-wire act is, in actual fact,not to put lipstick on the pig.It’s not just the botoxed brow that’s insensitive.The forehead, when it was wrinkled (no matter in how much concern), used to be callous as well.

What a timeIn which the celebration of life in the here and nowJust doesn’t seem to contain enough presence any morePrecluding any concern for the faces in the futureWho are still unknown.

What has worked for the two of usMay not be suitedTo muster up concern for those who remain abstract:Future generations.

When you think of a face you want that face to think of you, too.There’s a desire for the other person to think of you.And there should also be a desire to not just have an abstract relationship with the faces that do not yet exist.Yet they’re out of the question and they will never question you.

It is true: I once had the key to our houseThe key to togetherness was presenceAnd would it not be the key to address the challenges of today’s worldTo tread gently the ground below our feet?

Love and a sense of justice lying dormant within,can be retrieved in moments of togethernessWhy can’t this abundanceinspire concern for those who are yet abstract future beings,Those who are as yet unknown.

The idea of shared responsibility seemed so familiar as we satOn the sofa together and yetLightyears apart.It seems much less familiar nowWith respect to this planet.

But the idea of responsibility once was at least familiar to usIt made itself felt in the concern for a child to whomWe established a relationship that seemed to stretch far beyond present-day concernsInto a future that no longer will be just our ownA not-just-our-own into which something from us stretches – maybe everything.

 

The presence must stretch into a future that no longer is our own,Otherwise it is not a celebration of life.It’s all about the concern for the facesInto which we, at present, cannot yet look,But which, like every face, are an offer for talk.Much as this sentence may not seem evident for the future generations:The here and now is the key to connect with the world

So why not address abstract soon-to-be human beings directly?

That’s what the idea of presence is all about.

A keen interest in the here and now is fair enoughBut pampered interest in the now has to redirect the perspectiveBecause future persons, tooWill sooner or later live in the here and nowBut I guess they lack presence, those who are posing the question:Why should there be any ‘afterwards’ at all?

I can see clearly that what takes place between us has taken on a Cosmic dimensionI can tell from the millions of lightyears separating us on the sofaAnd are there not, in outer space, crammed into the tightest of spacesTwo Russians and one American,And who owns this MIR up there anyway?

Power is only bad when it foreseeably endangers the whole thing.We must be able to look those who are not yet here in the eye.

Present times should celebrate life in a bid to respect lifeFor the benefit of the faces that are not yet born.

You can only celebrate life by respecting it. By creating presence in favour of all the faces that are not yet born.

Bear in mind, it seemed useful to start from a poor prognosisTo finally assume responsibility.As far as this planet is concerned, we’ve beenA danger to everyone elseAs everyone else was to us.

We are aware:It’s no longer a matter of just loving thy neighbour.What’s needed is a concern for the next generationA concern that stretches into the distant future.

I’m willing to assume responsibility for a faceBorn in the futureInto which my own life will not stretch.I’m concerned for a face into which I cannot look yet.

I wonder what’s going through the minds of the future generation right now?And what chance is there for people like me than to be in this world?I could be anywhere, losing sight of myself. But I want to be in the world.Facing the world, and humanity.

So I would say: Let’s amend the fundamental rights of the individual protected by the constitution to include constitutionally protected fundamental obligations of the collective towards the future.

Artists/Collaborators: Afrikan Voices, Berlin Breaks, Katrin Brack, Tabea Braun, Bulgarian Voices Berlin, Klaus Dobbrick, Fabian Hinrichs, Johanna Kobusch, Frank Novak, René Pollesch, Johannes Zotz, Pollesch/Hinrichs (Autor/in), Fabian Hinrichs (mit), Afrikan Voices (mit), Bulgarian Voices Berlin (mit), Berlin Breaks (mit), René Pollesch (Text), Katrin Brack (Bühne), Tabea Braun (Kostüme), Frank Novak (Licht), Johannes Zotz (Licht), Klaus Dobbrick (Ton), Johanna Kobusch (Dramaturgie)

Next date:

• Date Friday, 20/December/2024 19:30 bis 21:00
• Venue Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz - Großes Haus
• Address Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, 10178 Berlin-Mitte