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?

We founded the Academy of Destruction to answer questions like these. Six children and six adult artists were equal members of the academy, who shared, tested and discussed practices and concepts of destruction. All sessions of the academy were open to the public, and the stage became a laboratory of creative destruction.

In this workshop we experimented with destruction and aimed to find a different view at destruction. Instead of seeing it as an expression of violence, hate and anger, we tried to see it as a a multifaceted event that is part of life and can be beautiful and even gentle – like slowly sweeping together a mandala of sand.

Building on the use of destruction on art, we investigated forms of destructivity we encounter in daily life, in the city, in school or even in the weather.

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

”KAPUTT!” is based on an idea by Dr. Sibylle Peters, Fundus Theater Hamburg.