AUSZUG DER KINDER ISRAELS AUS ÄGYPTEN A conversation with Carolin Emcke, Jan Assmann and Dieter Borchmeyer

The refugee has become a key figure in these times of globalisation, in which not only capital but also people are crossing borders, either fleeing something or seeking something, out of fear or out of need. Auszug der Kinder Israels aus Ägypten aims to thematesise motifs of farewell and exile, of the foreign as promise and flight as a departure to a better, more just system.

During the RuhrTriennale 2008 all sorts of characters appear, those who are lost and afraid, those who are searching, those who take themselves off on travels, whether Shakespeare/Bondy’s King Lear, who first has to lose everything before he can recognise that his greatest possession lies in an unavailable love; or Gertrud in Die Nacht, who needs light; or the immigrant family from Rocco und seine Brüder/Rocco e i suoi fratelli, who dream the classical dream of a better life but end up with a melancholy longing for their lost homeland.

During the RuhrTriennale 2008 Carolin Emcke, Jan Assmann and Dieter Borchmeyer will discuss the themes of Liebe und Opfer.