Portfolio
Rite To All - Interactive Performance (Schmitt&Schulz)
For the performative city tour ‘Fahrt ins Blaue’ of the Kulturbäckerei Mainz on 5 October 2023 on the theme of ‘City of the Future’, we whisked the guests away to a dystopian ambience of a different kind. Every few minutes, we whisked the bemused visitors through a post-apocalyptic party setting hidden in an empty old industrial hall.
In Rite To All the visitors are driven by a silver disco astronaut into a cave-like room lined with aluminium, where a mysterious golden machine being awaits them. There, without comment, they are asked to take part in a mysterious ritual, the meaning of which remains hidden. Is it the futuristic derivation of a Last Supper or a bizarre swallowing vaccination ceremony, or both? Is the serum a secret antidote, a contrast agent or even poison? Is it a hard drug or a harmless drink? What happens if I refuse? Due to the absolute duty of confidentiality, visitors only have one chance to answer their questions: by deciphering the clues offered by the room itself. What do the objects that look like relics of religious symbols mean? What do the kaleidoscopic projections mean? Are the droning rhythmic sounds the last remnants of an extinct culture? And what is the big golden machine being all about, which tries to influence its visitors in a kind of short sermon? Does everyone get out of here? Or only those who find the answers?
Rite To All is an interactive performance installation for up to 10 spectators. Each run lasts approx. 5 minutes.
Production Schmitt&Schulz
Um Kopf und Kragen - talk-Performance (Schmitt&Schulz)
"Um Kopf und Kragen" is the hybrid version of a live stream broadcast in 2021. The two performers Nic Schmitt and Peter Schulz ask each other questions from social and political fields. In the course of the performance, the ostensibly friendly mutual invitation turns into a competitive situation in which each wants to make the other look as bad as possible.
The whole thing is controlled by an omnipresent, faceless director, who takes statements made out of context and rubs them over the performers as discrediting subtitles.
The performance "Um Kopf und Kragen" is an ironic look at talk shows, real life docu-soaps and game shows and the question of whether we don't all have to think very carefully about what statements we want to make publicly on social and political issues.
"Um Kopf und Kragen" consists of a live performance that is similar to a TV studio: the audience watches the actions on stage and in parallel the projection of the stream on a screen. The live audience is filmed. These recordings are then inserted into the live stream. The actions on stage are subtitled in the live stream and manipulated using green screen technology. For the live audience, this makes the image manipulation obvious and comprehensible. The online audience sees a kind of live TV show that is supplemented by pre-produced inserts.
Duration: approx. 1,5 hours
Production pad, Schmitt&Schulz
nonstoponstage - durational performance
nonstoponstage is a durational performance improvisation experiment for two performers, located at the interface between the visual and performing arts. Schmitt & Schulz step onto an empty stage - still without the slightest idea what will happen on it. Everything happens spontaneously, from an interaction with the audience, an impulse or a sudden inspiration: a flow of aesthetic and highly imaginative, performative scenes that varies in tempo and rhythm, but never stops. Duration: 2 - 8 hours
Production pad, Schmitt&Schulz
- Jan 2019, pad Mainz: About Life (Performance on the subject of midlife crisis / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Aug 2019, „Kunstraum Alte Bürger“, Bremerhaven: peeping pad (Durational performance improvisation in a shop window / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Sept 2018, Kunstraum „Alte Bürger“, Bremerhaven: be-have – walking act version (Walking acts / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Nov 2017, pad Mainz: be-have (Performance on the topic of perception and behavior / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Jan 2017, pad Mainz: Bare Facts – the smile between my lips (Performance on the topic of intimacy and privacy / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Nov 2015, pad Mainz: Higher, faster, further (Ironic mega performance overloed event with 15 different individual projects / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Nov 2014, pad Mainz: The Proformance (High end performance on the topic of humans and technology / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Sept 2014, 100° festival, Berlin + Nov 2013, pad Mainz: Truth or dare (Frivolous performance game as a duel / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Dez 2012, pad Mainz: The end! (7-part infotainment performance series on the subject of the end of the world / Schmitt&Schulz and others)
- Oct 2012, pad Mainz: Dance without a dancer 2 (Dance performance / Schmitt&Schulz)
Series, regular or recurring formats:
- Feb 2019, Experimental Action, Houston, Texas: nonstoponstage (4-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Jul 2018, Sommerwerft festival, Frankfurt a.M.: nonstoponstage (4-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Aug 2017, Sprungturm festival, Darmstadt: nonstoponstage (2-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Jun 2017, Night of the museums, Mainz: nonstoponstage (7-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Jun 2014, Night of the museums, Mainz: nonstoponstage unlimited (8-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Jun 2012, Night of the mueseums, Mainz: nonstoponstage 2 (8-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Feb 2012, Fluxus festival, zeitraumexit, Mannheim: nonstoponstage (6,5-hour continuous performance improvisation / Schmitt&Schulz)
- Oct 2014 – Sept 2019, pad Mainz: Watch&Eat (4-hour continuous performance improvisation as a regular series / Schmitt&Schulz)
Sprachproben
Ein Weib (Heinrich Heine)
Segler
Greenpeace
Langschläfers Morgenlied (Mascha Kaléko)
Worms
Landliebe
