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Exhibition

Urban Nature

A walk-through film by Rimini Protokoll

“Urban Nature” is a work by Rimini Protokoll, a company that stretches theatre beyond its limits. In this world premiere of its latest performative installation, the collective turns the focus on life in cities.

“Cities are magnifying glasses that show us the extremes in society.”
Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, Daniel Wetzel and Dominic Huber (Rimini Protokoll)

7 true stories with the city as the backdrop

As though you were in a film, “Urban Nature” offers you the chance to walk through the true stories of seven characters with intersecting and in some cases opposite lives: a professor of economic and environmental history, an entrepreneur in new economies linked to technology and cities, a young woman who used to live on the streets, a girl from the Raval district, a submerged economy worker, a prison guard and a financial advisor.

Walk in the protagonist’s shoes

In the works of Rimini Protokoll the audience becomes the actors and protagonists. In “Urban Nature” you can immerse yourself in the stories of the characters and take on their roles. By means of an audiovisual narrative, the visit prompts you through a scenography that works like a film set. This is an immersive journey that invites you to walk in other people’s shoes and live experiences in a new way, with different points of view and biographies.

Living together in the city

While life in big cities and the seclusion caused by the pandemic may make us feel more isolated, “Urban Nature” shows that we are not alone in the city. Our actions and decisions in our private lives affect the public sphere.

“Urban Nature” reopens the debate about the management of natural resources such as water, the right to decent housing, the expansion of new economies and work models, inequalities between neighbours and the way younger generations see the future of cities.

Rimini Protokoll

Rimini Protokoll is Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel, a theatre company that’s been in operation for over 20 years on all five continents, with a plethora of international awards to its name. For “Urban Nature” it continues its successful long-term collaboration with scenographer Dominic Huber. It blends languages and disciplines in its projects, tackling controversial social topics and current affairs.

In “Urban Nature”, Rimini Protokoll reworks its own technique of simultaneous performance: a temporary architecture, neatly fitted together, in which each visitor, almost in passing, becomes an actor for the other individuals present in the space. Unlike traditional theatrical formats, this art form is highly immersive: it invites the audience to walk in other people’s shoes, changing places and living experiences in a new way with different points of view and biographies.

A commitment to experimentation and pushing formats to the limit

Back in 2017, in the framework of the exhibition “After the End of the World”, the CCCB and Rimini Protokoll co-produced win > < win, an interactive installation analysing the ability of jellyfish to survive in increasingly challenging natural circumstances. With “Urban Nature”, the CCCB has commissioned Rimini Protokoll and set designer Dominic Huber to produce a new project that rethinks audience interaction and the use of the digital in galleries, and highlights the more performative side of exhibitions.

Concept / Text / Direction: Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, Daniel Wetzel
Concept / Scenography: Dominic Huber

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The process of making "Urban Nature" at the CCCB

A short documentary film about the work of Rimini Protokoll

For four months (April-July 2021), a group of students from the MA in Creative Documentary at the UPF shadowed the three members of the theatre company Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel) and set designer Dominic Huber as they prepared the play Urban Nature at the CCCB.

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Speaking out in the city

Rap and hip hop workshop with Versembrant

Actions in the neighborhood

Workshop on the design and construction of elements for new uses of public space

Lecture by Stefano Mancuso

Phytopolis: The City of Tomorrow

A Conversation with Andreu Gomila and Rimini Protokoll

Theatre Beyond Its Boundaries

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