Parade of The Trickster

Performance | Intervention | Community participation | Storytelling

Opening Ceremony (Excerpt)

Performance | Full length: 5:00 mins

Parade of the Trickster

Intervention | Chemnitz

What transformations do we need to go through to face an uncertain future? What tactics can we use to take ownership of our collective narratives?

The Raven of Pacific Northwestern Native American lore steals the sun, moon and stars from the Sky Chief to bring light to humanity. The Tanuki (raccoon dogs) of Studio Ghibli stage a ghost parade to fight deforestation. Trickster figures from stories all over the world use mischief, cunning and magic to influence the course of the human and the divine. In doing so, they often shift between different creatures to adapt to whatever the situation calls for.

Through retreading traditions of costuming and storytelling, the Trickster series considers what strengths we can borrow from old gods and monsters to fight the new ones looming ahead. Mask-making workshops provide the community with a chance to create their own trickster masks. An opening ceremony dramatically sets the scene for the Parade of the Trickster, where we channel the more-than-human together on a walk through the city. And storytelling cards invite us to learn about tricksters past and consider what elements of trickery we ourselves might draw from.

Mask-making and Storytelling

Workshops + Participatory performance

Photos by Christoph Meyer, Michele Scognamillo and Denise Lee.

Video documentation by Natalie Bleyl and Dean Ruddock.

Project made possible by the Dialog Felder Residency.