'StoSS in [die] Modellschweiz ein': Simulating Switzerland as Alpine Heimat in Stefan Kaegi's Mnemopark (2005). (25th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McClelland, Richard
• Is Part Of: Forum for modern language studies. Volume 55:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 20
• Page End: 35
• Publication Date: 2018-10-25
• Subjects: Baudrillard -- Heimat -- postdramatic theatre -- Rimini Protokoll -- Simulation -- Stefan Kaegi -- Switzerland; Languages, Modern -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Philology, Modern -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 800.05
• DOI: 10.1093/fmls/cqy045
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0015-8518

Abstract

Abstract: In his postdramatic theatre production Mnemopark (Theater Basel, 2005), Swiss director Stefan Kaegi presents a miniaturized vision of Switzerland on the stage in the form of a model railway. Drawing on the wider dramaturgical techniques of Kaegi's theatrical practices with the award-winning German-Swiss collective Rimini Protokoll, throughout the production five 'Experts of the Everyday' layer their memories and experiences of reality onto the concrete space of the model to produce a simulated vision of Switzerland as Heimat on the stage. In applying Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulation to Mnemopark, this article addresses the disconnect engendered between the model and the extra-theatrical reality that it supposedly represents by focusing on how the production juxtaposes multiple traces of reality on the stage. Thus, I highlight how Mnemopark interrogates contemporary understandings of Switzerland as Heimat in a way that posits a future reconceptualization of the nation that is inclusive and potentially utopian.