Instructions for Those at Home #1

A do-it-yourself scenario to be experienced at home by the audience on the migration history of the Mate tea from Argentina via Syria to Berlin.

Description

Instructions for Those at Home is a format which was developed for the online edition of the Performing Arts Festival Berlin in 2020, after the festival programme originally planned had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Fragments of the six performances that were supposed to be presented as part of the newcomer’s platform Introducing… were shared as practical knowledge, open tools and do-it-yourself scenarios that could be experienced at home by the audience or interpreted anew. The instructions were intended to be understood as small acts of care: an attempt to create togetherness in times of physical distance.

Instructions for Those at Home #1 is based on the performance On the first night we looked at maps and was conceived as an analogue experience to do without the need of an electronic device. Spectators would receive on request a letter with all the necessary elements to perform it at home, which had been carefully put together along with some texts to create a new alternative fifteen-minute experience related to various topics in the original performance.

In a welcoming letter, spectators were first asked to find a table (preferably in the kitchen) where they could comfortably spread out all the contents of the envelope and would then take a seat. The do-it-yourself scenario provided all the necessary elements and guided the audience members through the preparation of Mate tea, allowing them to perform a simple personal ritual at home. While drinking their Mate the audience would then interact with a world map and would be asked to explore their perceptions of the world represented in front of them. In the next step all the elements would come together and the audience would follow the migration history of the Mate tea from Argentina through Syria and finally to Berlin.

An online version was also prepared and was presented in a catalogue style, with photographed documentation of the contents of the analogue original. Browsing through the pages as if a magazine, the online spectators were also able to take part in the experience.

Research, Text, Objects & Photography Vöcks de Schwindt

Thank you to Filolino for the illustrations for the section Mate-tea preparation – Instructions for one person at home.
Developed as part of the newcomer’s platform Introducing… organised by the Performing Arts Festival Berlin.
Based on On the first night we looked at maps.