Can a house be more than a house?

A Short Film by HORST JESUÉ WEGENER

followed by a panel discussion with the participants and concert

What can a house carry?
Whose voice can it give?
Who is allowed to look inside?
Who gets to be heard?
What happens when people step outside their familiar roles?

The film does not explain the Pina Bausch Zentrum. It asks questions.
The answers do not emerge as statements, but as performative moments.

The Pina Bausch Zentrum stands not only for performance, archives and international artistic production. With the Forum Wupperbogen, it is also intended to become a public space for participation, exchange and new forms of social cooperation. Participation is understood as a cross-cutting task. Artistic strategies and shared practical experiences are intended to help transform social interaction. This is where the film begins.

It translates the idea of the Forum Wupperbogen into an artistic form. People from politics, culture, business, the neighbourhood and the wider urban community enter a shared space of experience.

Horst Jesué Wegener was born in Quito, Ecuador, in 1997 and now works as a rapper, songwriter and film producer in Wuppertal. He was a member of the jury for the international competition for the Pina Bausch Zentrum.

Horst Jesué Wegener © WUPPERwerft

Concept and direction: HORST JESUÉ WEGENER
Music composition: Roman Babik, Ngolo Simon Zerbo, Horst Jesué Wegener 

Featuring Ann-Kathrin Kramer, actress; Helge Lindh, Member of the German Bundestag; Mariam Muwanga, university lecturer; Mayip Sala Ndiaye, fitness coach; Suzan Öcal, Anti-Racism Officer, City of Wuppertal; Eva Ouargaga, pensioner; Miriam Scherff, Mayor of the City of Wuppertal; Selcuk Yücel, taxi driver.

In 2020, Horst Jesué Wegener took part in a performance by the choreographer Robin Orlyn as part of the under construction programme. The text was written for this occasion.

“Can a house be more than just a house?
I’m not sure. I know people who wanted to be more
than just a person and were broken by it.
Can your roof be the roof of the entire city?
And how much weight can it carry?

All the love.
All the pain.
All the passion.
All the knowledge.

Can your windows become an exchange between
the outside and the inside?
Or are your windows tinted,
so that you can only look out,
but no one can look in?

Can a house give a person a voice?
Yes. That sounds plausible.
But can a house give everyone a voice?
And who can hear it?”

Horst Jesué Wegener // 2020
Can a house be more than just a house? is a co-production by Horst Wegener and the Pina Bausch Zentrum under construction, as part of the Schauspielhaus’s 60th-anniversary celebrations marking the Graubner Building.