The Viennese theatre collective God’s Entertainment has been working since 2006 in different team constellations on projects in the areas of performance, happening, the visual arts, and sound, and on research about new forms of the performative by combining live acts with installative elements. Their actions, devoted to the social and political themes of our time, are usually held outside traditional theatre spaces and involve interaction with the audience.
For Ruhr Ding: Schlaf, God’s Entertainment developed an overall walkable installation with a maritime appeal. A larger-than-life, blow-up, walk-in spatial sculpture in the shape of an octopus is placed on top of Witten’s Saalbau. In the spirit of a versatile 'tentacular thinking', open in many directions, it complements the scenery inside the building in an exciting way. The sculpture comes along with a lively indoor setting, to which the artist collective has given the illusion of a cruise ship. Inside the building itself a diverse event programme is being held as usual – as a venue and cultural meeting place for the citizens of Witten. During their visit people also encounter the seemingly anachronistic promise of a precisely structured, sheltered, and carefully timed expedition to distant worlds, including cabin life and an on-deck swimming pool.
In co-production with the Kulturforum Witten a new installation will be created during the exhibition period. With an exciting approach, it aims to challenge and accompany the conceptual reprogramming of the Saalbau, which was built in the 1970s.
God’s Entertainment has produced shows and events at theatres and cultural venues all over Europe, for instance in Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin, Liverpool, Žilina, Brno, and Prague. Most recently, they were guests at the Impulse Theater Festival in North Rhine–Westphalia with their project GGGNHM.