Jaws in a pond, cyclists getting clobbered, trees that move: just another train journey in Germany

Record ID: 909283

  • Title: Jaws in a pond, cyclists getting clobbered, trees that move: just another train journey in Germany
  • Date: 7th September 2017
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 7, 2017) (REUTERS) VIEW FROM WINDOW OF OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (German) CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND CO-PROJECT LEADER OF BEWEGTES LAND, JOERN HINTZER, SAYING: "It was a wild ride to convince all the people. It was very hard at the beginning. But after the first day, after the first performance, many more people applied. And even now that the performance is over, we received so many mails asking when the project will happen next year, and they want to be part of it. Now it would not be a problem, we could do it again next year and we would have had thousands of people who want to take part in it." JAWS-LIKE SHARK MOCK-UP IN OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (German) CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND CO-PROJECT LEADER OF BEWEGTES LAND, JOERN HINTZER, SAYING: "And nowadays, in the age of fast mobility - and that also concerns the internet - there is only the issue of getting as fast from point A to point B. I fly with a plane, I take the fastest train I can find, that is great for the people who live separately in Berlin or Munich or where-else. But that way we somehow lose the chance to meet the unexpected on our journey from A to B. And with this project we wanted to try this preposterous attempt to make those chance-meetings possible while the train is moving unstoppably."
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2017 16:44
  • Keywords: Bewegtes Land train theatre Naumburg to Jena train journey
  • Location: VARIOUS ALONG TRAIN TRACK FROM NAUMBURG TO JENA AND BERLIN, GERMANY
  • City: VARIOUS ALONG TRAIN TRACK FROM NAUMBURG TO JENA AND BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Theater
  • Reuters ID: LVA0046XLHF89
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A train comes into view and a lone figure in 70s sports swear, visibly excited, gets ready for the race of his life. He has 23 minutes and just over 30 kilometres to beat the train from Naumburg to Jena. Much to the passengers delight it looks like he might do it.
    But this is not all that's in store for passengers travelling on this otherwise bucolic stretch of Lower Saxony track.
    There are trees that walk and wave, trabants chasing a modern car, a man patiently waiting at a traffic light in the middle of a field, a great white looming over two fishermen and much much more.
    The event that includes around 50 performances along this Saaletal stretch is the brain child of media professors and artists Joern Hintzer and Jakob Huefner. 'Bewegtes Land', a play on words that can mean moving countryside or moved country, was set in motion six years ago when the two friends were on a train from Berlin to Munich and noticed that the fast train slowed when going through the Saaletal to accommodate the meandering countryside. The two men also noticed that as the train slowed people put away their phones and laptops and actually stopped to look out of the window.
    "You go past and you only have maybe 5, 4, 8 seconds to see anything. But the journey from Naumburg to Jena is 23 minutes and that is a perfect length of time. And so we thought, OK! we have to perform along the whole stretch. The whole stretch lends itself to being a stage and it's just 23 minutes. It's a short film," Hintzer told Reuters TV.
    The concept of the performance aims to bring the city and the countryside closer together and create a bridge between the two sometimes differing lifestyles. It was also an attempt to draw the people into taking part.
    "Nowadays, in the age of fast mobility - and that also concerns the internet - there is only the issue of getting as fast from point A to point B. I fly with a plane, I take the fastest train I can find, that is great for the people who live separately in Berlin or Munich or where-else. But that way we somehow lose the chance to meet the unexpected on our journey from A to B. And with this project we wanted to try this preposterous attempt to make those chance-meetings possible while the train is moving unstoppably."
    "But it isn't easy to convince people when you have a completely new idea. If we were to say we were doing a huge maize field labyrinth then everyone knows what we are talking about. Then there is just a maize labyrinth and you know what it looks like and that it will be fun, so you go with your family. If you tell people you are creating theatre for trains going past then it is much like saying you are creating a performance for a plane flying overhead. People just think it is a nonsense idea, that it's completely stupid," Hintzer said.
    On the first day they managed to convince 200 people to participate, by the time they were done nearly a thousand locals were involved including the mayors of Jena and Naumburg, voluntary firefighters, the train services and residents.
    Hundreds of parking tickets later and days of working 18 hours straight, the team were able to present their show.
    Would they do it again? Maybe, said Hintzer, but not without proper funding as this time everything was self-funded.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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