Experimental convergence: two performance groups decided to attempt a public exchange based on non-human actor network theory, and chose the Bavarian city of Munich as their venue. Buktapaktop and MRCVE attempted to integrate their programmes into a joint investigative venture…Based at the “Färberei” the two groups engaged in performative excursions the “Klohäuschen” and “Pavillon im alten Botanischen Garten” as well as semi-external venue KÖsk, with a participation in a demonstration-rally by and for the physically challenged.

The MRCVE and Buktapaktop activities culminated in the main evening performance at the “Einstein Kultur” in which individual presentations were combined in a banquet and fashion exchange with the public as participants. Each member presented an intervention during the banquet—Simo S. projected interior views on Julien C’s torso while he delivered his psycho-archeological findings; Lise D. handed out phrases she repeated all the while; Dialogist-Kantor set about chasing each other in a sort of physical, operatic love song; Janne R. and Asko N. changed places constantly while Heinrich O. attempted to get more than shivering screeches out of his violin; Jérôme shaved his head Dachau style; Jussi drank heavily and Deuxelles pottered about with the dishes, at the end presenting the reverse of the tablecloth “Was ist Koscher?”

The conversations lagged somewhat since the presentations were largely non-verbal, object oriented, consisting of movement and suggestion, which the public did not much participate in, but observed… slightly bewildered perhaps. To conclude the series Buktapaktop assisted the MRCVE in their re/construction of a bread-man, constructed of various sorts of bread and imbued with a soul of 300 year old yeast from a traditional farming family in Finland.

During this time together there were not only animated exchanges between the two performance groups, but also with the host venues and the public. This made for a rather broad palette of interests and perhaps spread the themes of the performance too thin—but it was meant to be an investigation into how far a collaborative mass could be stretched.