Götterdämmerung im Ruhrgebiet: Christoph Schlingensiefs Wagner-Rallye

Abstract

abstract:This article focuses on Christoph Schlingensief's Wagner-Rallye (2004), a work described as a counterpart to his staging of Wagner's Parsifal in Bayreuth. Inspired by Kluge's short story "Götterdämmerung in Wien," the Rallye radically reworks Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk concept by dispersing the sound of his operas in the public space. With Rancière, I describe the becoming-material of Wagner as "aesthetics of the torso" and discuss its emancipatory potential while simultaneously examining it withing the specific context of the Ruhrfestspiele; a festival founded as counterpart to established cultural institutions in an attempt to bring culture to the working class.