Mittenmang-Festival zu Gast in der Kunsthalle. Am Halse der Natur

In the organizer's words:

Anne Bennent & Otto Lechner (CH/AT): Am Halse der Natur

with texts by Franz Kafka and Robert Walser and lots of music

While for the folk song poet it is still clear that "people jump over streams and run over meadows", the relationship between man and nature is much more complex for the writer. The great Swiss walker Robert Walser wandered through the landscape, admiring and marveling at it, whereas the city dweller Franz Kafka makes a speech to the landscape, in the course of which it becomes completely unhinged. Walser, as a greyhound, shows us his erratic mental connections of observations, and Kafka dreamed of a greyhound-like donkey. With the help of such strange connections, Anne Bennent and Otto Lechner have put together a program of favourite texts by their favourite authors. Sometimes you might not understand what it's all about, but then the music helps.

Anne Bennent received her first film award at the age of 12 and first appeared on stage at the Schillertheater in Berlin at the age of 15. Since then, she has worked with Ingmar Bergmann, Peter Brook, Thomas Langhoff, Klaus Peymann and George Tabori, among others, rocking the big stages and always retaining a taste for the small form.

What Otto Lechner elicits from his accordion is primal musical power, which can be admired in Bernhard Pötscher's documentary Otto Lechner - der Musikant. Since going completely blind as a teenager, Otto Lechner has been exploring his music and the world without sight. He is a musical cosmos unto himself and "makes the accordion sound like Jimi Hendrix once made his guitar sound."

By and with Anne Bennent (voice and saxophone), Otto Lechner (accordion and voice)

EUR 10 / 5 reduced (on the day of the event, this ticket also includes admission to the exhibition Kunst fühlen. We. All. Together in the Kunsthalle).