KAPUTT! The Academy of Destruction

Copenhagen Contemporary 2020

National Theater Mannheim 2023

Why aren’t we allowed to break anything while others can?
Who decides what is destruction and what is not?
Who has the license to destroy and why?

The Academy of Destruction was founded to answer such questions. It consisted of six children and six adult artists as equal members who shared, tested and discussed practices and concepts of destruction. Academy sessions were open to the public, and the stage became a laboratory of creative destruction. Now KAPUTT is also coming to Mannheim!

In this workshop we will experiment with destruction and look at destruction differently. Away from violence, hate and anger, instead destruction as a diverse event that is part of life and can be beautiful and even gentle – like the slow swept together of a mandala made of sand.

Can we see destruction in a different way if we look at it through the lens of Live Art? Will we be able to see that destruction is not only about violence, hatred and rage, but that there is more to it? Together, we will try to reclaim destruction as a cultural strategy, that can be marvellous, manifold, careful and mindful.

Inspired by a.o. these artists: Gustav Metzger, Katharina Duve, Dieter Roth, Eva Meyer-Keller, Jeremy Deller and Steven Cripps.

The original version was created by Fundus Theater, Hamburg.