Documentation of Baader Meinhof eXperiment – black box edition

The norwegian scenario BMX was written to use the oppurtunity of two appartments in the same block inhabitet by prominent larp writers and organizers;  on one hand Eirik Fatland & Li Xin and on the other hand Erlend Eidsem Hansen. This was the setup:

Two rooms, next door : the security police and activists.

One wall divides them – One focus tears them apart, ideology
One group of participants plays the police, the surveillance department and the paramilitary
the other group plays activists, communists and anarchists

The game was well documented by Li Xin and Håken Lid.

When me and Ebba Petrén brought it to Stockholm last spring we decided to put it in an abstract black-box environment instead of a realistic setting. The idea was to make the presence of each sides obvious to the players of the game allthough their characters were yet to find out.

A room with black walls, neutral floor and dynamic light put people and bodies in focus. One can be tempted to think of the black box as a neutral ground where “pure” role-playing can happen, with no surrounding distractions. Allthough black, square and clean the box is far from unbiased, it severely affect how we think and do live role-playing.

The stage is transparent. Everything can be seen, but not necessarily heard, by everyone. The participants move through a void, but proximity becomes a distinct tool.

Here are some images from the enactment in Stockholm, where I had the oppurtunity to hide in the shadows, manipulating the lights and taking pictures.

The Baader-Meinhof eXperiment Stockholm

Vi hjälper Erlend Eidsen Hansen att sätta upp detta lysande scenario i Stockholm på tisdag. Det finns 20 platser och vi kör på Riksteatern i Hallunda.

The Baader-Meinhof eXperiment Stockholm

Two rooms, next door : the securitypolice and activists.

One wall divides them – One focus tears them apart, ideology
One group of participants plays the police, the surveillance department and the paramilitary
the other group plays activists, communists and anarchists
An interactive drama about the extreme left of Swedish activists in the 1970s,
the officers that monitor them, and the terrorists who try to recruit them.

We are in a space in a collective of Stockholm. The year is 1975. Abba has won the European Song Contest last year. The 1st of May is drawing to a close. What will be the main slogan? Will the Israelis come to Stockholm during the Grand Prix Final?

A group of peace activists and KPml(R) have a visit from a group of fresh new members of the RAF (Red Army Faction).
Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and two others are in prison in West Germany.
The RAF plan to do a politcal action in connection with the embassy in Stockholm.
The police do not intend to let this fraction ever reach their goal. But who is a terrorist, who is not? When is it terrorism?
A group of watchers have found the group and installed monitoring equipment in the apartment.
It’s just a matter of hours before the authorities have enough evidence to strike against them.

Several members of the collective do not particularly enjoy having a visit from their old communist friends who have taken up arms after a visit to the Commune 1 (K1) large squat-collective of Berlin, in 1969.

Besides being an exciting thriller this event will hopefully also reveal parallels between our time and our recent past:

  • Where are the borders between “activist” and “extremist”? What draws people to cross it?
  • Where is the line between abuse of power and control over the situation for police and authorities?

ADRESS: Riksteatern, Hallundavägen 30.
DIRECTIONS: Subway to Hallunda, red line towards Norsborg. The ride takes 35 min. — MAP
CONTACT ERLEND: erlendeh at gmail.com
PRACTICALITIES: Gabriel Widing, +46735707959, editor@interactingarts.org
STARTING AT 17.00, ENDING AT 22.00

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Foto: Li Xin