COLD LOVE (seelenstahlbaden)

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novella cycle The Legacy of Cain was planned as a poetic panorama of the chills and chasms of a natural history of humankind. However, only two of six parts were completed, the volumes on love and property. COLD LOVE (seelenstahlbaden) speculatively continues his abandoned magnum opus in five miniature plays. Following the structure of a Japanese nō-theater festival, different performative perspectives on the risks of modern projects of freedom are chosen and explored in their potential for frustration in a model-like manner—as a therapeutic soul treatment for the lovesick.

With materials by Guillaume Dustan, Dorothee Günther, Alexandra Kollontai, Yukio Mishima, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Max Stirner, Pseudo-Zenchiku/Bertolt Brecht.

Thanks to: Jana Baldovino, Sophie Baranès, BLESS, Glaserei Wenzel, Gloria Hasnay, Richard Stury Stiftung, Samurai Kampfkunst Kagami-ryu München, Treize

Photo by Constanza Meléndez