Election campaign and art: Volker Lösch: “We can’t stay out of it anymore”

Early on Friday evening you will start the new series “Angry at Capitalism?!” in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Is this an election campaign caravan for the Left Party?

I would rather say: an event that is intended to strengthen left-wing counter-publicity. By this I mean, of course, the politics of the Die Linke party, but also the politics of the social left, its initiatives and civil society organizations. We’re doing this for the European elections and in five or six large cities in the three federal states where there will soon be state elections. And next year before the federal election.

And what should that look like?

We want to get away from the classic demo situation: you just look ahead and don’t feel that close. Instead, we have a 360-degree installation that is reminiscent of an arena, based on the agora, the marketplace in antiquity. There is a wagon in the middle and around the outside we have platforms on which performances can take place, so that you can sometimes move the energetic focus from the stage to the side. It goes in all directions. The nice thing is: you can walk onto this square from all sides. Even people who are traveling by chance.

Can’t sit down?

Yes, that’s different than a demo. We have folding chairs and cubes and you can also sit on the edge of the platforms. Those who sit listen better. But it is also intended for older people who may have problems standing.

What does this installation look like?

In the middle is a carriage whose walls are covered in gold. Set designer Cary Gayler designed this. One of the biggest problems we have right now is inequality, this scandalous, ever-growing excess of wealth. That’s why everything is beautiful gold. And you can read our slogan from the outside: “Angry at capitalism?!” It comes from Bernie Sanders. We are for strong left-wing politics.

What do you mean by that?

Movement from the left, more than party politics. Someone who writes a good left-wing book also practices left-wing politics. Someone like me, who is currently giving an interview, is doing left-wing politics. You do that too if you work for a left-wing newspaper.

Okay, you can open a left-wing print newspaper and see what you like and what you don’t like. But you do a kind of street theater…

I would call it performance.

And there’s the crux of the matter: it has to convince people who happen to be passing by to stop and pursue it further. They might decide that in 30 seconds. What’s the trick?

First the gold. That looks good. Then our logo: a golden rocket that pierces the world. And our topics: We start with inequality, then comes migration, post-migration and social issues. The third topic is climate. We tell this based on the resistance against Tesla in Grünheide. The fourth topic is housing, which is very important in Berlin. The fifth is human rights and the sixth is utopia.

Another society?

Socialism is discredited as a concept, but not as a political form.

And Europe?

This is the seventh topic. We start the event with Martin Schirdewan and end with him. Specialists are added for each section. This then changes from city to city. Civil society should participate in the broadest sense. Participating in Berlin are, for example, the sociologist Naika Foroutan, the author Julia Jirmann from the Tax Justice Network, but also actors such as Philipp Grimm and Katharina Wackernagel, who also take on roles and theatricalize content.

Pretty sporty for 1.5 hours.

We want to try this out now.

And sometimes there is music in between?

Yes, political music, but not these campfire songwriters. There is a rapper in Berlin: Lena Stoehrfaktor. And there is entrance or entrance music for the respective actors, like in a boxing match. Rouzbeh Taheri, the “nd” managing director, who performs for the Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen initiative, asked for “Eye of the Tiger,” but he gets different music.

Good ideas also need a good show.

This is a mixture of demonstration and talk. I would like to break it up with different forms and make the whole thing entertaining. Elon Musk, Susanne Klatten and Ursula von der Leyen conduct mock dialogues with us. The idea is to get to the point, be specific, and avoid the usual politicians’ talk, this abstraction of empty words. This is all a huge experiment that hasn’t existed in this form before. In the end, the aim is to create an opinion of people who practice left-wing politics in the broadest sense in different corners of society, but who are not really represented when you look at the election results.

They are actually very manageable.

I do believe that there is a potential of 15 to 20 percent for this kind of leftism. Also in distinction from the group that has now split off, which to be honest makes it possible for me personally to work with the Left Party.

Is this performance also the result of your documentary theater over the past 20 years?

I don’t do documentary theater, I just do theater in different forms. In contrast to many others, political content is central. We often include representatives of social groups in our work, but this is not documentary, but sensual and juicy. For example, together with Christian Tschirner, I rewrote the entire “Tartuffe” for the Dresden State Theater to reflect the history of neoliberalism. So, it’s always highly political, but figuratively framed. And professionals always mix with amateurs, which benefits both sides. The professionals teach acting to the amateurs and the amateurs can describe and authenticate things that the professionals don’t know. In 2010 I had 30 Hartz IV recipients on stage in Hamburg. If someone says, “I don’t leave the house because I don’t want to wear out my shoes, because I only have one pair and no money to go to the cobbler,” then that’s not a role, but a real, urgent problem. Which then makes the structural plastic.

Politicians also engage in role play during election campaigns.

Yes, it’s often very lifeless, this cliché and the ritualized dismissal of content. And you know that has nothing to do with reality. If they were authentic, the Greens, for example, would have to put up posters saying “Hurray, asylum law abolished!”.

No roles are rehearsed for your performance?

No, it’s not a play where something is spoken by heart. We don’t rehearse. We only agree on what we want to negotiate. There is an approximate script of the event. I hope for the talent of those involved and that somehow it will all go well.

And why are you putting yourself through all the stress?

I am a relatively well-known director from the state theater sector. They’re actually always out and about saying: I don’t want to have anything to do with politics right now. But I think it doesn’t work that way anymore. We can’t stay out of it anymore. Wars, shift to the right, wealth, inequality, climate catastrophe – and I’m sitting in the theater doing art exercises? That’s why I want to strengthen a left-wing counterpublic. We don’t do it like others who say “only for Germans” or “racism and feminism are secondary issues” or “we do politics with a leader.” No, we tell them: We are the many. There are already so many great people who represent left-wing content, but each only for themselves. We want to create an energy that, in the best case scenario, continues.

In the past, the Left Party, as a small party, often only wanted to co-govern and participate.

Last summer I read this little volume: “Art and Politics”, a conversation between the film director Ken Loach and the sociologist Édouard Louis. You asked yourself why so few people vote on the left and so many on the right. And then we came to the very simple point: Leftists have to take care of their own content and try to convey it to the outside world and not constantly chase after others. We have so many good things to say, and that will prevail in the medium term. If we stay with ourselves.

First event this Friday at 6 p.m. on Anton-Saekjow-Platz in Berlin-Lichtenberg. You can find the information here.