Merge /​ Buzzing Bridge

The music the­ater MERGE plays with how the process of record­ing makes us who we are – how real and fic­tive record but­tons, rep­e­ti­tion, sounds, music, and lan­guage cre­ate our iden­ti­ties.

In a pho­to­graph from 1906, a crowd in south­ern Rwan­da gath­ers for a mag­i­cal event in front of a small appa­ra­tus on a table. Behind the table is an offi­cial of the Ger­man colo­nial admin­is­tra­tion with a machine that sucks in the sound, carves the voic­es and the music into the wax rollers. The artists offer their tal­ent with­out compensation.In MERGE, the musi­cians and per­form­ers become sound car­ri­ers who turn the stage into a sound­ing nego­ti­a­tion space: Who owns what and what belongs where? What is for­eign? What is the own?