Artists created playlets and installations in private apartments that could be visited as part of an expedition through Duisburg exploring the districts of Duissern, Bruckhausen and Marxloh. The temporary performance spaces were created especially for the apartments in question sometimes with and sometimes without the involvement of their inhabitants. Participating artists included: Gerhard Benz, Hans-Peter Boeffgen, Claudia Bosse, Rodrigo Garcia, Götz George / Jochen Schumacher,»Hofmann & Lindholm«, Bobo Jecic / Natasa Rajkovic, Stefanie Lorey / Björn Mehling, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Stephan Miller, Janec Müller, »Tobias Z.«, Luk Perceval, Alexander Petlura, Johannes S. Sistermanns, Paul Slangen, Kristian Smeds, Rubén Szuchmacher / Edgardo Rudnitzky, Thomas Thieme / Julia von Sell, Nadia Ross / Jacob Wren, Daniel Veronese, Anna Viebrock, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Steffi Wurster, Jörg Zboralski.

At the beginning in Peter Pomm's Pusztetten Bude* (it really does exist), each pair of theatregoers are handed route maps -- which take us, for example, to the Okomus family’s cosy home, which has been turned into a Turkish version of Neuschwanstein complete with red braided cordons. Or to a former mosque where an actress recites Racine’s grand Phaedra monologue, and, at the same time, opens the eyes of a couple of Turkish lads to the possible attractions of the theatre with her bared breast. A few streets further on some true natives offer to buy us beers, if we take the Türkisch für Anfänger (Turkish for beginners) ** test and rail on about their neighbourhood’s image. For example, they tell us that the abandoned miners’ housing estates have not been renovated because it is potentially more profitable to hire them out as a film set. They tell us what it is like to live in a showroom of decay. After three hours on the road, it is no longer possible to tell the difference between reality and show. Is the huge second-hand furniture shop that has just opened and already looks as if it was closed down five years ago a work of art(ifice)? Are the alkies at the refreshment stand paid extras or real down-and-outs? This is out-and-out city theatre: every resident is playing the role of his or her life. (Christof Siemes, Die Zeit 28/2002)
* a diner featured in popular German TV crime series ** a TV comedy series about a German-Turkish family

Documentation