Come closer … with the audience (Entre deux)
by Thusnelda Marín Jungmann
After the performance “Entre deux” by 101 concrete, the audience is still standing around or sitting on the grass. Next to the pingpong table in Bürgerpark Kalk, which had just been a stage and then the venue for a workshop, for spectators who wanted to engage with this everyday object in a new way.
The scene slowly dissipates; the surroundings—with their playground, people collecting bottles, and arguments among young people who had previously seemed subdued—grow louder once more. Some are still leaning against the table or pulling out their bats, others are moving closer to it, unaware that it was just a work of art a moment ago, and still others are running their hands over the surface, as if they need to make sure it has become what it used to be once again.
I ask those who have stayed what connection they have had with pingpong tables so far, what memories of something familiar or casual have surfaced in the meantime, and whether they think their relationship with them might change in the future. The pingpong table: a place for games, for little competitions, for breaks. The table as a place of negotiation, as a boundary, as a connection, as a stage.
Note: The audio is only available in German language.