we in a box

/ Space in the back of zeitraumexit / Performance / no spoken language / no age restriction /

“we in a box” is a percussive experience. Rope jumping, footwork and shadow boxing become musical elements that interact with beats on the training drum Zarb-e-Zurkhane. The parallels between the two different disciplines are established as if in passing, so that an athletic training session becomes a virtuoso concert and music-making an archaic battle. An “acoustic dogma” that understands every sound as a musical process and touches on archaic questions of the “fighting man”.

Touch + hearing tour for visually impaired people available. Pick-up at 6:30 pm at the Nationaltheater bus stop is possible if booked in advance by 20.09. at Ticket@zeitraumexit.de. The venue can be reached via a few steps and an unpaved path. Festival staff will be happy to help if you book in advance.

Creative Director: Josefine Turnbull. Concept: Joss Turnbull. Sandbag, skipping rope, footwork, breathing + training: Everline Akinyi Odero. Zarb-e-Zurkhane, Reeq, objects, exercise: Joss Turnbull. Audio description: Charlotte Arens + Peter Luttringer.
 
Co-production & Support: Morphine Raum Berlin, Jazzinstitut in Darmstadt, Fonds Darstellender Künste, Alte Feuerwache Mannheim, Produktionsort der Künste Maschinenhaus Essen, Komplex - Off Bühne für Darstellende Künste Chemnitz, Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Comissioner for Culture and the Media Germany.

Everline Akinyi Odero was born in Nairobi in 1985 and started boxing at the age of 13. Although not a widespread sport among women in Kenya, she took part in up to 20 professional boxing matches from 2005 onwards. She left her home country in 2020 and is now continuing her career as a trainer in several boxing clubs in Berlin-Kreuzberg and Neukölln. In the fall of 2022, she crossed paths with percussionist Joss Turnbull and they began an artistic exploration and collaboration. The resulting sound performance “we in a box” has since been performed throughout Germany and Europe.

The percussionist Joss Turnbull has realized many musical and interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with musicians and performers from non-European traditions. The goblet drum Tombak / Zarb-e-Zurkhane is the center of his musical work. By using unconventional playing techniques, he alienates the traditional sound of his instrument and develops a hybrid percussive language. As a soloist and ensemble member of international music and performance projects, he has worked in Japan, Korea, the Middle East and Europe, among other places. In 2019, Joss Turnbull received the Kathrin Prize from the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt and in 2020 a scholarship from the Roger Willemsen Foundation. In his latest works - as a soloist on his second solo album “Turmoil” and with the duet “we in a box” - he explores the boundaries of musical expression.

Photos: Sommerblut + Miriam Juschkat