Mateo Argerich: Bitte Aussteigen - Das Musical

MUSIC, LYRICS & CHOREOGRAPHY: Mateo Argerich

MASTERING & SOUND DESIGN: Nico Mohammadi/ DJ Durbin

SOUND ENGINEERING & MASTERING OF “Comfortable”: Budhenau 

budhenau.com

COSTUME DESIGN: Alexis Mersmann

COVER IMAGE: Laura Mascarenhas

Call it punkapella, call it experimental pop. Call it a concert, an audition number. Call it voyeurism, an audio opera. Call it an overstimulated dance. Call it a musical, a confession. 

"Bitte aussteigen" (please leave the train) signals the end of the line. Everybody out!

After 7 years of living in Berlin, Mateo Argerich hit a turning point, so when recording their debut album, they politely invited every biting experience to “please leave the train”. Composed by overlaying a wide range of vocals, their music undresses clunky sexual explorations, bureaucratic performances, party mishaps, and health misfortunes. Harmonies sweeten the pill and render a home for the performer who navigates this purge on the margins between comfort and distress, humor and tragedy.

Thank you for accompanying the ride. Remember to leave all baggage behind.

Mateo Argerich has a background in music, choreography, architecture, art and activism. They inhabit Pelusia: a magic place of transformation and play that enables them to explore all their different personas.

Living in Berlin since 2015, Mateo continues to research dancing in the streets as an invitation to awaken our agency to shape the public sphere – this work has been exhibited as video installations and in online formats.

Argerich has collaborated with many artists, designing sculptures and installations worldwide with Tomás Saraceno, and as a performer with Monica Bonvicini and Maria Scaroni.

Since 2020 Argerich has been choreographing, composing, and organizing within the campaign Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, holding pleasure activism at the core of their political work.

In 2022 Mateo released Bitte Aussteigen, their debut album, reconnecting them with choir singing, which they had extensively done in Buenos Aires.

The incorporation of humour threads throughout their work, making it accessible, engaging and allowing to visit uncomfortable places. In the cracks between harmony and discomfort, Pelusia finds spaces for self-reflection and reinvention.

Sointu Pere & Oli Fierz: shaping pleasure

CHOREOGRAPHY & DANCE: Oli Fierz, Sointu Pere

SOUND DESIGN: Ari Robey-Lawrence

The smallest movement in the body, major feelings

Moving air through space, the air is palpable

Active calmness in calming tiredness

Listening to my ears melt together with my voice

Letting body be

Receiving the security of joyful vibration under my skin without feeling shame 

Transforming the honesty of anger

What do I have to learn to meet you?

We want to rest in deconstruction 

Therefore we pleasure our freedom

"shaping pleasure" is an exploration of pleasure in two bodies, approaching it on an emotional, societal, and physical level.

Oli Fierz was born in 1999 in Basel and started training in freestyle dance when they were nine years old. After competing in hip hop competitions for ten years they decided to take a break from the commercial dance world and since 2021 they have been enrolled at motion*s Berlin. Their focus is on improvisation and on how movement is embedded in contradictory societal structures.

Sointu Pere is a freelance dancer and performer based in Berlin. She studied cultural management in Helsinki and holds a BA in Culture and Arts. In 2021 she completed the Dance Intensive Program at Tanzfabrik Berlin. Most recently, she has performed at Sophiensaele Berlin and at Impulstanz Vienna. Her approach to movement is influenced by improvisation, somatics, and instant composition with a focus on exploring political and emotional intersections between race, gender, and societal structures.

Aminata Reuß: Ami in the box

CHOREOGRAPHY & DANCE: Aminata Reuß

For me, music is the source of dance. If I open myself to it with all my senses and give myself to it, it hits my body with full force and moves it. When I listen to music with my eyes closed, I see and feel myself dancing to it. I see my movements, the clothes I am wearing, the place I am in. The images before my inner eyes arise in me through the music. Why do these images look the way they do? I don't know, however, it is a state where everything that arises feels right, just as it is.

When the music kicks, I feel and see what you can now feel and see. Close your eyes, let it hit you - and if you feel like it - move! Feels good, doesn't it?

Aminata Reuß is a contemporary dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. During her school years she completed a three-year preliminary dance training course at Tanzfabrik Würzburg. In 2021 and 2022 she completed the Basis Program and the Dance Program at the Motion*s dance school in Berlin. She also works as a circus educator at Circus Blamage and is a member of the drag queen group ‘Hayzel Butt & her Nuts’. For Aminata, dance is a way of expression and a method of mindfulness, as well as a means of imparting knowledge and a form of activism.

Joanina Suchomel & Andreina Eymann: be alright

CHOREOGRAPHY: Joanina Suchomel

DANCE: Andreina Eymann, Joanina Suchomel

"be alright" portrays the interaction between grief, courage and love. Through the figure of the clown the piece questions a one-dimensional view of death via movement that ranges from the minimal to the expressive, exploring tensions between humor, grief and silence. "be alright" is a philosophical and abstract play with invisible boundaries – and the courage to speak in silence.

Joanina Suchomel is a contemporary dancer and choreographer. She completed her her training in Berlin and Paris before graduating from the ETAGE school in Berlin in 2021. Joanina is passionate about powerful and dynamic movement in her explorations of expressive imagery. She researches how dance and movement can create images within the spectator and with growing interest she further incorporates elements from dramatic theatre such as voice and language. In her work she deals in particular with feminist themes, criticizing and questioning patriarchal structures whilst examining the resulting social problems in our society.

Andreina Eymann is a contemporary dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. After a short time at the Staatliche Ballettschule and Schule für Artistik Berlin, she completed her training as a contemporary dancer at ETAGE Berlin in 2022.

Samira Aakcha, Giulia Lampugnani, Constantin Carstens: From the narrator’s chair

CHOREOGRAPHY & DANCE: Giulia Lampugnani, Samira Aakcha

MUSIC: Constantin Carstens

How do we love?

How can we find new definitions of love and worthiness in society? Where do we

start? From the narrator’s chair proposes a space to reflect on what we call love and

what love can be. The piece investigates social interactions and observes their

impact on individuals. By looking for new definitions, the narrators attempt to outline

new guidelines for coexisting with others. By letting go of preconceived notions of

love, they create space to redefine it.  

Samira Aakcha works as a contemporary dancer, performer and dance teacher. The focus of her work is the energy between humans and generating community through movement. Samira received her degree as a dance pedagogue at the Tanz Zentrale Leipzig in 2018 and in October 2021 she graduated from her 3 year dance degree at Danceworks Berlin. She worked with several choreographers in her education – after her education she started working for Harake Dance Company, Ronja Häring and Karin Wickenhäuser. Currently she is researching different movement principles to expand her movement language and repertoire.

Giulia Lampugnani was born in 1999 in Brescia (Italy). 

In September 2021 she completed her three-year contemporary dance education at the Tanzakademie Balance1 in Berlin and is now freelancing in Germany and Italy.

Her Background includes the study of multiple disciplines: Contemporary Dance, Modern, Jazz, Ballet and Commercial. She works as a professional dancer and choreographer in different projects and teaches in Germany and Italy. She enjoys working with different artists and is constantly looking for different ways to approach dance and performing arts.

Constantin Carstens graduated with distinction in “Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering” at the renowned Abbey Road Institute, Berlin, in 2019. In the same year he started releasing music under the name HeDuDa. Half a year later, at the age of 23, Constantin started working as a recording & mixing engineer at various studios and started exhibiting audio-based artworks and installations. Since then, he followed his curiosity and fascination for sound & art and had the pleasure to work with artists like Mouse on Mars, Tomas Saraceno, Rosa Barba, and Lee Scratch Perry.