Eating Refugees

Distress and Circuses

Performative Action
Maxim GOЯKI Theater | Berlin | 2016

To celebrate the big EU-Turkey deal, we built an arena with four Libyan tigers in the middle of Berlin. We searched for refugees who were willing to be eaten for the successful defense policy of the federal government and for the transport ban for refugees (§ 63 Abs. 3 AufenthG) – a hyperreal Rome on the floor of the strong European Union.

The gladiatorial interpretation of Europe: The arena is the building type of a condensed deadly trap. Here, fates are generated in front of a large audience – defeats and victories. Spectacles uncover the ideological core of a society, such as letting refugees die in the name of securing the EU’s external borders. While the deterrence policy takes a break, the arena gets cleaned and filled with fresh sand.

§ 63 Abs. 3 AufenthG
The prohibition of transport for refugees is an essential element in the monument. If tigers approach, written law faces natural law.

An Operation of Center for Political Beauty
Scenography Shahrzad Rahmani
Costumes Hanne Günther
Dramaturgy  Ludwig Haugk

Photos © Patryk Witt | © Zentrum für Politische Schönheit | © Ute Langkafel MAIFOTO