Water Flow

Presentation

The river Nesenbach has been buried under the city of Stuttgart. Thick layers of concrete cover its flow and it has been integrated into Stuttgart’s sewerage system. A river that flows underneath Europe’s most-polluted street crossing. But its presence is still noticeable: It has determined the architecture of posh shopping malls and its waters still shape infrastructural projects in the city.

With Water Flow (working title), JOiN explores this hidden river by staging a Baroque oratorio at eight places throughout its course on eight consecutive days. The oratorio will be performed by a large chorus that consists of Stuttgart citizens. Every one of them has been walking on the river, knowing or not knowing. Different experiences, different stories, linked by a river that can barely be seen. Water Flow will tell some of these stories.

The staging by director Heidi Mottl and stage designer Maria Martínez Peña will be site-specific and therefore different at each place. Every performance will be unique. Scientific experiments and environmental activities with and about water will be a part of every performance. One day we might even clean the notoriously dirty Eckensee, a small lake right next to the Stuttgart Opera House, which is connected to the Nesenbach, too.

For Water Flow, JOiN will cooperate with the Wilhelma, Stuttgart’s zoological-botanical garden, which is also responsible for landscape maintenance in the city, and with the Experimenta Heilbronn, Germany’s largest science center. Together with our partners we want to change perspective: on concrete jungles and on hidden flows.

There will be no entry fee and no auditorium. No assigned seating and no guarantee to remain dry. The power of Baroque music, a crowd of people flashing up at off places, the charm of scientific experiments and the stories of the city’s inhabitants come together in this eight-day-performance inundating our city’s summer.

Artistic Team