Kosmokoloss

1. Bruno Latour: »Kosmokoloss. Eine Tragikomödie über das Klima und den Erdball«, 52'22
2. »Welche Kunst für welche Ökologie?«. Bruno Latour im Gespräch mit Margit Rosen, 23'27

Radioplay  Interview

The inhabitants of the Earth sleep quietly, for they hardly know anything about the planet they are on. They do not understand how much what they consider the solid framework of their existence is reeling. They refuse to see that their way of inhabiting the Earth has led to an ecological crisis that perhaps only a small portion of humanity will survive. »Kosmokoloss. A Tragicomedy about the Climate and the Globe« addresses this divide: the discrepancy between the magnitude of the crisis and people's ability to perceive and understand it.

The controversy over the state of the planet unfolds as the earthlings awaken from their dreams and make their way to a construction site where the outline of a giant ark looms against the sky: Haven't we always had wet summers and mild winters? Or have we irrevocably destabilized the Earth's surface feedback mechanisms, and Gaia will drown us like little kittens? How should we deal with the monsters we have created? Why is the scientific debate coming to no conclusion? Should we act even without absolute certainty?
Kosmokoloss depicts the world of the Anthropocene: a world inhabited and damaged by a species that must now watch its impending demise proclaimed through colorful PowerPoint presentations.
 
»Kosmokoloss« is the first play by French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour. In search of a "new eloquence" of the political, theater is a possible form to confront the mismatch between the importance of current events and the narrow repertoire of sensations and feelings with which we react to them.

The original French version of the play was created in 2011 in collaboration with Frédérique Aït-Touati and Chloé Latour as part of the »Gaïa Global Circus« research and theater project.

»Kosmokoloss«
Translated from the French by Margit Rosen
Radio play dramaturgy: Margit Rosen

Composition: Saam Schlamminger
Trumpet: Micha Acher

Participants: Wolfgang Pregler, Gabriel Raab, Marie Seiser, Kathrin von Steinburg, Steven Scharf, Helmut Stange, Hans Kremer, Wolfgang Hinze, Stefan Hunstein, Sylvana Krappatsch

Casting: Andrea Fenzl
Sound and technical: Gerhard Wicho, Winfried Messmer, Regine Elbers, Holger Stenschke

Director: Ulrich Lampen
Assistant director: Stefanie Ramb

Editing: Herbert Kapfer

CD design: Daniel Kluge