Fighting, playing, wrestling – they bring us into a dialogue, into a relationship beyond discursive entanglements. Or so Kollektiv Zoo's thesis for their research Dialog im Kampf (combative dialogues). During their residency at Tanzhaus Zürich, the collective opens an anti-discourse arena as a space for social dialogue in combat. Inspired by the Playfight movement, Kollektiv ZOO develops a system of rules and conditions in order to gain access to combat beyond supposed physical advantages.

Jens Eike Krüger, Constantin Leonhard and Anja Plonka confront each other without knowing the ideological agenda of their opponent. Disarmed and sans phonetic language, they encounter each other as characters in this game. And they ask themselves: What democratic potential lies in such encounters? Which forms of dialogue do they foster? And what (physical) theses can we formulate together through this?

The work-in-progress sharing is followed by a short audience discussion.

Photo: Lea Schöning