EMPIRE OF OIL

PART 1: A RESEARCH IN 360°

Ballhaus Ost, Berlin

With EMPIRE OF OIL, the Costa Compagnie in cooperation with the Ballhaus Ost starts a substantial inquiry into this most decisive resource: divided into three separate media and parts, the project circles the complex topic oil and looks into the two contrary countries of Norway and Iraq. The Scandinavian nation is a most vital supplier of oil and gas to Germany, while Northern Iraq – in turmoil over attempts of Kurdish independence – is a base for the German Forces and other allied troops to fight ISIS/DAESH and also contains one of the largest oil fields in the region. Does the powerful resource entail the potential for a social welfare utopia like Norway or does it lead to a never-ending war like in Iraq? What are the experiences of oil producers and oil workers and the people in their local context?

Between November 2017 and May 2018, the group will develop three intermedial performances and a virtual reality film, based on the 360°-video material that they filmed on-site in Stavanger, Bergen, Kristiansand, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Mosul, the latter during the Kurdish referendum and closure of the air-space.

The Costa Compagnie approaches these questions with documentation and abstraction and starts out in November with a video-work and by building a 360°-video space at Ballhaus Ost in November. In February 2018, the second performance will take a text-based and VR-focused approach, while in May 2018, a dance performance will conclude the the inter-media discourse on this globally critical issue.

Premiere Video Essay:   23 Nov 2017
Further shows:
24 / 25 Nov 2017
02 / 03 Feb 2018
24 – 26 May 2018 at 6pm
27 May 2018 at 4pm

In English with German subtitles

Tickets available here !

Part 2: The Underground Frontier (Performance)
Premiere 01 February 2018

Further Shows
02. / 03. February 2018
24 – 26 May 2018 at 8pm
27 May 2018 at 6pm

Part 3: An Infinite Ending (Dance)
Premiere  24 May 2018 at 9:30 pm

Further Shows
25 – 26 May 2018 at 9:30pm
27 May 2018 at 7:30pm

Virtual Reality Installation
24 – 27 May continuously

Artistic Director /Research/ 360°-Camera Felix Meyer-Christian  Camera / Photo / Drone Stefan Haehnel Fixer Repak Dawdi, Hana Quader Stage Design/Costume Zahava Rodrigo Projection Mapping & Programming  Erik Kundt Video-Editor Stéphanie Morin, Michail Rybakov Video-Support René Liebert Composition / Soundart Marcus Thomas Vocals Inger Lindsjørn Nordvik Buzuq Mevan Younes Voice-Over / Dramaturgy Hauke Heumann Graphic Fanny Wühr Dramaturgy-Assistant Lena Mallmann Production Assistant / Cutter: Nicole Nowak Cutters: Timothy Justin Lalonde, Ana Catalá, Karo Serafin, Miguel Murrieta Vásquez Support Doaa Ahmed, Jascha Viehstaedt

Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and with kind support by Optoma Germany and the Goethe Institut Iraq, Liaison Office Erbil.