PARTICIPANTS

Singers Agnethe Christensen, Bente Vist
Dancers Nanna Susanne Hviid, Bo Madvig, Michael Preisler
Lecturer Per Øhrgaard
Conversation Partners Bjørn Nørgaard, Fos/Thomas Poulsen, Camilla Stockmann, Poul Pilgaard Johnsen, Ingvar Cronhammar, Claus Beck-Nielsen, Christoph Bartmann, Goethe Instituttet, Claus Lynge, Elisabeth M. Jensen, Georg Metz, gert Baliing, Gritt Uldall-Jessen, Hanna Ziadeh, Hans Bonde, Hans Georg Lenz, Henning Lehmann, Niels Lehmann, Jens Blendstrup, Joakim Garff, Julie Fabricius, Kasper Holten, Kirsten Drotner, Kirsten Hasberg, Marianne Stang Våland, Michael Thouber, Michael Valeur, Morten Thanning, Palle Kjærulff-Scmidt, Paul Gazan, Steen Bille, Suzanne Brøgger, Tomas Ortved, Tone O. Nielsen

Concept Kirsten Dehlholm, Christine Meldal, Jesper Kongshaug
Direction, Scenography Kirsten Dehlholm
Choreography Christine Meldal
Lighting design Jesper Kongshaug
Dramaturgy Claus Lynge
Costumes Thilde Jensen
Lecture Text Per Øhrgaard

Information
Word-body-fire-mirror: Kirsten Dehlholm masters her four elements with persistence, manipulating with them in the performance Calling Clavigo in a
masterful fusion: The word becomes visual, the body two-dimensional, the fire linear and the mirror hair-splitting.
– Anne Middelboe Christensen
Read the full review here

GOETHE AND THE CONCEPT OF ‘BILDUNG’

Extracts of the performance text by Per Øhrgaard. (Translated by John Irons)

The German concept of ‘Bildung’ is impossible to translate into English. It is cultivation, education, breeding, enlightenment, sophistication and personal development rolled into one. In German it is called ‘Bildung’. Out of desperation, the English even refer to a novel describing the inner development of the main character as a ‘Bildungsroman’. Whenever the Danish word that corresponds to ‘Bildung’ is being translated, any of the above words may have been substituted.

An educated human being. Posterity has often looked back at Goethe as the man who – if anyone – represented European ‘Bildung’, the last man with the overall view, who, on the threshold of the modern age, was both able to handle a cultural heritage and understand that which was in the offing. And posterity has therefore usually completed the circle by defining ‘Bildung’ on the basis of Goethe, precisely as the ability – perhaps less universally, yet nevertheless – to have a considerable overview and, at the same time, be capable of adopting a personal and creative attitude towards it.

‘Bildung’, then’ as the opposite of over-specialisation – the ability to see beyond the confines of one’s own special concerns. And ‘Bildung’ as more than objective knowledge: the cultivated person is in the world, but the world is also in him or her. However, certain conditions have to be fulfilled for a person to be cultivated – although exactly what is never precisely stated.

That is an ideal picture, although ‘Bildung’ would not be worthy of the name if it did not also include an awareness of the fact that ideal and reality never coincide. And Goethe himself preferred not to speak of ‘Bildung’ as something one had – he spoke more of the lifelong process of acquiring it. In his novel about Wilhelm Meister he lets the strange girl Mignon answer Wilhelm, who feel that something should be done about her ‘Bildung’, with the words: ‘I am educated enough to love and to care.’
Very central human emotions are to be found both before and beyond ‘Bildung’ – if not beyond it. It is possibly the crowning glory of an assignment, but the actual assignment – man himself – is a sine qua non.

‘Bildung’ can only be relevant where society has not been written off in advance as something totally wrong, and where man has not been rejected in advance as something incurably sinful. So the origins and basic nature of ‘Bildung’ are a human utopia – or a utopia concerning that which is human. It is not a concept with a fixed definition or a sum of knowledge or skills which one can acquire and then be ‘cultivated’ once and for all.

So it is not all that strange that seminal texts on the subject do not use the theme in their title, but deal with something else – with reason and the faculty of judgment, in Immanuel Kant, with man’s ‘aesthetical’ education in Schiller, or with a young man’s personal development, his ‘prentice years’, related in the form of a novel, in Goethe. The process is just as important as the final result.

The idea of ‘Bildung’ arises when it becomes imperative to define what is distinctively human in a new way, because the meaning of life is not necessarily given from above or because man has become the sovereign force in the world. The development of both thought and material possibilities that became so evident in the course of the 18th century has not ceased since then – so it is all the more important to speculate on how man, with all his power, can retain his inner balance and his tractability – his ‘Bildung’.

Premiere on 19 November 2002 at Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark

CALLING CLAVIGO
En forestilling om dannelse
2002

Hvor kommer dannelse fra? Fra selskabet?
Hvor er den på vej hen? I vælten?
Hvad skal vi med den? Tage for os af retterne?

Spørgsmålene udforskes, når forestillingen Calling Clavigo kalder det klassiske dannelsesbegreb frem igen for at konfrontere det med nutidens behov. I en kombination af tale, samtale og handling bliver tilskueren indført i dannelsens oprindelse og fremtid.

Calling Clavigo tager udgangspunkt i Goethes dannelsesideal og hans drama Clavigo fra 1774. Forestillingen er opdelt i tre dele, der kobler fortid og nutid, kunst og videnskab, sansning og fornuft.

Goethe-specialisten professor Per Øhrgaard indleder med en tale, der introducerer og aktualiserer Goethes syn på dannelse. Talen danner grundlag for en efterfølgende samtale mellem to aktuelle kulturdebattører. Nye samtalepartnere vil komme til hver aften. Kendte som ukendte. Unge som ældre. Men alle med deres individuelle standpunkter.

Optiske figurer i lys og rum perspektiverer talens indhold og fortsætter, hvor samtalen slipper. Korte koreograferede forløb udnytter fysiske fænomener og to forskellige principper for lys. Strømmende tankebilleder dannes.
I forestillingens tredje og afsluttende del dramatiseres temaet i en visuel fortolkning: Spejle i forgrunden fordobler ilden, sangen og sansen, mens fanden og fornuften holder sig i baggrunden. Alle dør til sidst – dannede såvel som udannede.

Som et oplæg til forestillingen udgiver Hotel Pro Forma bogen Omdannelse – 11 nutidige former. Et samarbejde med designbureauet VIA, der gennem interviews aktualiserer og perspektiverer dannelsesbegrebet med udgangspunkt i nulevende danskeres forståelse af det.

I dag handler dannelse ikke så meget om at tilegne sig bestemte kundskaber, men om at have nogle redskaber til at kunne håndtere ambivalens, modsætninger og forskellighed.
– Kirsten Drotner

Dannelse i højeste potens handler om at fordybe sig og ræsonnere.
– Jakob Lange

Det er klart at det kan udløse ubehag og dårlig samvittighed, når man konfronteres med noget man ikke ved. Men man behøver jo ikke at overgive sig til sin ulyst, man kunne i stedet tage sig sammen.
– Frederik Stjernfelt

Varighed 120 min. med en pause