Beykoz Kundura’s new theater stage opens with experimental ‘Remote Istanbul’ project
BEYKOZ Kundura, a former Istanbul shoe factory turned cultural venue, is ready to open its second stage, on its way to becoming one of the most prominent cultural scenes in the city.
Kundura Stage, a new theatre at the venue, will open in September with an interactive performance by Germany’s renowned documentary theater group, Rimini Protokoll.
Focusing on contemporary performance arts across multiple genres, Kundura Stage is an alternative platform for cutting edge theater productions. The inaugural season of the stage launches with Rimini Protokoll’s “Remote Istanbul” – a theatrical audiovisual journey in the streets of Istanbul.
Adapting the “Remote X” project to Istanbul, Rimini Protokoll’s interactive and immersive experience sees a small group of 50 audience members set off into the heart of Istanbul with headphones. Guided by a synthetic voice, the audience is asked to watch each other and make individual decisions whilst always remaining as part of a group.
Throughout the performance, binaural recordings and film scores provide a soundtrack for the urban landscape. The journey through the city feels more and more like a collective film. The audience is transformed into active participants in the performance, exploring the influence of artificial intelligence, big data and our own predictability.
Since its first premiere in Berlin in 2013, “Remote X” has traveled to more than 50 cities including Lisbon, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Sao Paulo, St. Petersburg and more.
Buse Yıldırım, Managing Artistic Director at Beykoz Kundura said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Rimini Protokoll, cult pioneers of documentary theater and are very glad to present their ‘Remote X’ performance in Istanbul, which offers a unique audio-visual experience of citymaking through theater and technology. We aim to centralize the theater of documentary/reality into our curation policy by hoping to collaborate for multiple upcoming projects from this genre. Our mission is to present cutting edge, innovative productions in Istanbul and we look forward to witnessing the gradual return of its vibrant cultural scene.”
“Remote Istanbul” opens to the public on Sept. 19 with a premiere on Sept. 12 in Turkish and on Sept. 13 in English. The work will be performed over the weekends until Nov. 15 and tours will be available in both Turkish and English.
Ticket sales will be available online from Aug. 31 at the website of Beykoz Kundura. In the interest of creating and maintaining a safe performance experience, new measures will be in place within the scope of COVID-19 health and safety regulations.
“Remote Istanbul” will run parallel to a wider event program at Beykoz Kundura including public art talks and online screenings, which will be announced in due course on Beykoz Kundura’s social media platforms along with its website again. Stay tuned!