Sterben als Problem für Künstler*innen

In the organizer's words:

Performance by and with René Ritterbusch

Ritterbusch turns 40 in April. He thinks about dying. Why? He calculates that 40 could be about half his life expectancy if things go well.

In 1954, Gottfried Benn gave a lecture entitled "Ageing as a problem for artists". He approached the phenomenon of ageing from a documentary/historical perspective. Benn did not like ageing and he did not want to be old. He tried to rationalize these relationships. He died in 1956.

Ritterbusch is not afraid of ageing, rather he is worried about not growing old. That is why he focuses on the question of dying. He cannot imagine a world without himself in it. Ritterbusch links his individual experience of the world to the existence of the world. This egocentric approach triggers great emotions in relation to dying.

Michel de Montaigne wrote an essay entitled "To philosophize is to learn to die" when he was around 45 years old. In it, he emphasized the need for us to be aware of the possibility of dying at every second. Only then could we avoid being surprised by death and thus avoid the fear of it. He died in 1592 in his family's castle chapel.

Ritterbusch splits off. He lets various figures speak as representatives of his personality in order to get to the bottom of the meaning. The result is an evening of life and death. A cursing and pleading into the nothingness of his own transcendental homelessness.