Berlin Chorus of Women

The Polish director and singer Marta Górnicka gained international fame for her innovative work with choruses. On the Day of German Unity in 2018 she staged a choral performance of the German constitution in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin featuring 50 professional and semi-professional singers. In her works, Górnicka often probes the relationship between the individual and society and experiments with new forms of collective choral voices. The ancient concept of the chorus, as well as the collective dance- and song-based rituals and ceremonies of society are important historical reference points for her. Not only does Górnicka highlight these but also moves beyond them by offering women, whose bodies and voices are still marginalised today, an opportunity to express themselves. The chorus, as Marta Górnicka envisions it, can exist wherever new forms of solidarity are tested and where divisions have to be overcome. Because Górnicka values a high level of diversity in her choruses, the creation of the chorus itself embodies the spirit of democracy.

The project “Berlin Chorus of Women” consists of two parts. Górnicka staged what she called the “Political Voice Institute”, a year-long academy with a laboratory character at the Gorki Theater in Berlin. There she staged multiple workshops and developed new forms of theatrical work in longer rehearsal phases spanning several months. In September/October 2020, the Political Voice Institute presented highlights of its working process at the newly created Gorki Kiosk in the form of a micro-intervention entitled “Community: An App for One Person”.

Based on choral research conducted by the Political Voice Institute, Marta Górnicka is now developing the second part of her project, the production “STILL LIFE” (working title), scheduled to premiere at the Maxim Gorki Theater in April 2021. In an age of digitalisation and mass extinction, and a world order marked by exclusion, exploitation and subjugation, Górnicka addresses the question of how we can radically redefine community without borders. An appeal for a world full of connections, a choral manifesto for a new society.

Artistic director: Marta Górnicka
Artists: Berlin Chorus of Women
Dramaturgy: Rebecca Ajnwojner, Ludwig Haugk