Crypt[A] (2011)

crypt [A] is a project bridging disciplines, in which visual art meets theater and computer gaming.

Imagine an installation where you have to participate in it to access it. An installation that tells a story connecting with your perceptions and actions, that allows you to touch, try out, and change anything.

In its annual “support” program, hub:kunst.diskurs explores the idea of debating culture through artistic performance. In 2011, the arts association featured support acts, i.e. groups that support other cultural organizers. machina eX was nominated for the program by the HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and was the second project in this series.

The task was to nominate artists who would expand, deepen, or challenge the work of machina eX through visual art. machina eX called on artists from its own ranks to translate the collective’s stories into a participatory spatial installation, as a prequel to a major theater production at the Hebbel am Ufer in 2012.

Premiere / Venues

Opening in August 2011 at hub:kunst.diskurs, Hannover

A hallway with a black and white tiled floor lit by wall-mounted fluorescent tubes.
A hallway with a black and white tiled floor lit by wall-mounted fluorescent tubes. At the end of the hallway is a tangle of cables giving off a pink glow.
On a black and white tiled floor is some shining pink wire mesh with lots of cables sticking out of it.
A portable radio on a chair in front of an unplastered wall.
A desk with an electric typewriter in an unfinished basement vault.
A desk with an electric typewriter in an unfinished basement vault.
Unusual electronic devices on a table.
A desk with an electric typewriter, printouts, a book, and a numeric display above it that reads "002."
A screen showing a piece of cake and the words, “Help yourself!”
A chess piece on a table in a room with unplastered walls and an unfinished floor.

Credit: Philip Steimel

Concept and Execution: Robin Krause, Laura Alisa Schäffer, Mathias Prinz, Lasse Marburg, Julia Hundt /// Equipment: Julia Hundt /// Technology and Programming: Lasse Marburg, Robin Krause /// Text: Laura Alisa Schäffer, Robin Krause, Mathias Prinz /// Sound Design and Music: Mathias Prinz /// Production management: Laura Alisa Schäffer /// Animation: Jan Philip Steimel

Production:machina eX and hub:kunst.diskurs e.V. thomas kaestle. Funded by:the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture hub:kunst.diskurs e.V., the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, and EISFABRIK e.V. (EISFABRIK receives institutional support from the Hannover Culture Department.). In cooperation with the Hebbel am Ufer and the Kunstverein hub:kunst.diskurs hub:kunst.diskurs