in German with English subtitles

– Please note that strobe lighting is used during the performances!

Samo is a visual artist. He has skillfully managed to let his works speak for themselves. As a person has not appeared in public until now. But his works are celebrated.

But the pressure is rising, journalists and art brokers smell a story, they are moving closer. Showing his face would be a sensation, a spicy story, a price increase ‒ at least that’s the expectation. But Samo hesitates. Because the price he would have to pay could be high, threatening his existence. A race for self-determination and the prerogative of interpretation, a forced performance for the right to one’s own image begins.

Aesthetics of Color ‒ ein Kammerspiel shows an artist and his strategy to survive in a white market. Black visual artists are selling, they seem to be part of the worldwide circulation of art at biennials and fairs. A new hype in the whitewashed art world! But what do they produce? What spaces do the liberal arts offer? Who can assert themselves in them and how? And what is the price you have to pay if you expose yourself to the free art market in the White Cube?

For his drama, Aesthetics of Color ‒ ein Kammerspiel, Toks Körner was inspired by protagonists of the Berlin art scene, with numerous interviews forming the point of departure. It is an examination of the mechanisms of the cosmopolitan scene, in which autonomy, creativity and freedom are central values. It is a sharp analysis of the projections placed on works and artists in the name of art criticism. It is a contemporary, self-determined representation of a Black artist in the medium of theatre. Here, with the production of Aesthetics of Color ‒ ein Kammerspiel, the battle for recognition, dignity and livelihood, often fought alone, is provided with a space, a theatrical form, an audience.

The actor and screenwriter Toks Körner wrote his first theatre play in 2017: Walking Large. The production of the same name (director: Atif Mohammed Nor Hussein) at Ballhaus Naunynstraße was nominated for the Monica Bleibtreu Prize and invited to the Privattheatertage 2018. Aesthetics of Color is the second drama written by him and his debut as a director.