Theatre photographer and artist Franziska Götzen is presenting an artistic work in the foyer of the Theater an der Ruhr that transcends the boundaries between photography, sculpture and literary expression.

The starting point of the work, which consists of a sculpture and four video films, is a poetic exploration of trauma and the resulting fragmentation of the self - an inability to continue functioning in the usual way.

A blink of an eye away from the demands of light lies a labyrinth in the darkness. Branched, opaque, punctuated by fine rivulets, an inner landscape of memory and foreboding stretches out. A search for what is believed to be lost unfolds in the silence. Frighteningly and playfully, a path of healing pours out of separation into a hidden whole. Slowness and immobility become the nourishing basis for healing processes. The song of the broken life, which leads through the destruction and reconstruction of an identity, shows that wounding can also reveal the indestructible unity of the soul.

The resulting video installation thematises the complexity of the inner psychological landscape and its reflection in the anarchic structure of nature. Franziska Götzen adds her voice to the impressive images that surround the audience. Götzen will perform a text written especially for this work. The audience is invited to enter into a spatial and emotional relationship.

Franziska Götzen performed in the Young Theatre of the Theater an der Ruhr and then returned in 2016, during her training as a photographer, to photographically accompany the RUHRORTER project. Since 2019, Götzen has been working as a permanent theatre photographer for the Theater an der Ruhr and as a (photo) artist. ‘Mein kleines Gespenst’ was her final project in the context of the “Photography” degree programme at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen. She lives and works in Mülheim an der Ruhr and Essen.

Start: 7.30 pm

Admission is free.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.