Vi beskytter landet

VI BESKYTTER LANDET is a documentary lecture-performance which suggests a de-simplification of the historical record, particularly engaging with the issue of relationships between german soldiers and norwegian women during WWII.

Information

(Objekt ID 473)
Object type Production
Premiere 2009
Produced by Volumen Express and friends
Audience Youth, Adults (from 16)
Keywords Performance, Theatre, Multimedia, Documentary, Lecture
Running period 2009  —  2012
Website VOL.EX. VOLUMEN EXPRESS

Requirements to venue

Minimum stage width 7m
Maximum stage width 15m
Minimum stage depth 5m
Maximum stage depth 10m
Minimum stage height 3m
Blackout Yes
Rigging time 180 minutes
Downrigging time 60 minutes
Audience 60
More

"Ja vi elsker dette landet" ("Yes, we love this country" is the first line of the Norwegian national anthem) sings the 90 year-old Rudolf Geiss with tears in his eyes. He was one of the German soldiers who had occupied Norway under the 2nd World War. And yet he fell in love with the country, as he says today.

The documentary lecture performance VI BESKYTTER LANDET takes a look at mutual war memories. Created for touring in high schools it creates an intricate retrospect on the relationships between German soldiers and Norwegian women during the occupation. Formally it fluctuates between sober lecturing and poetical abstractions of intimacy: Historical objet trouvés, original soundclips, live-projected images, archive texts and interviews meet with the performers? bodies, reminding of the physical aspect in the German-Norwegian relationships. The different medias are sometimes unison, and sometimes disharmonious, but always with the purpose of transmitting history as something tactile. Something touchable. A lost object. A retrieved person. Somehow, this is also the history of history. Or perhaps a journey through the desolate landscape between humans and the very own history it has shaped.

Contributors (17)
Name Role
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Playwright
Demian Vitanza – Playwright
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Concept/Idea
Severine Urwyler – Concept/Idea
Demian Vitanza – Concept/Idea
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Direction
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Dramaturge
Demian Vitanza – Dramaturge
Severine Urwyler – Stage design
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Video/Film
Yasin Gyltepe – Lighting design
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Actor
Severine Urwyler – Actor
Demian Vitanza – Actor
Veronika Susanne Bökelmann – Technician
Yasin Gyltepe – Technician
Demian Vitanza – Producer
Performance dates
2009 Worldwide premiere