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18 June – 6 July 2025, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Cologne, Düsseldorf

The Cloud

A person in a protective suit is kneeling on the floor and has placed their upper body on the floor. They are wearing a gas mask, which they are holding with theri hands. The background is blurred and in blue and violet tones.
© Guiseppe Follacchio
One person is wearing a protective suit and a gas mask. The suit is dark green and covers the entire body, including the head. The gas mask has round eye openings and a round filter in front of the mouth. The background is blurred and shows blurred shapes in shades of blue and gray.
© Guiseppe Follacchio
A person in a dark protective suit can be seen in a hanging, bent-down pose. Neither the face nor other parts of the body are visible. The scene is bathed in warm, reddish light.
A person in a dark, wide overall stands with one arm outstretched and holds a gas mask in the other hand. A colorful projection with a fragment of text can be seen blurred in the background: “- First we ... get rid of the pipe...”.
© Guiseppe Follacchio
A person in a protective suit stands on a stage and holds a gas mask in his hand. She is leaning backwards in a dramatic pose. A projection with a blurred image and text can be seen in the background. The text contains the words “from here into the reactor collapse...” and the time “+00:30:12:11”.

Arkadi Zaides / Institut des Croisements

The Cloud

Multimedia Performance

“This is one of the best world premieres of the 44th Montpellier Dance Festival. [...] Absolutely fascinating, moving story.” Agnès Izrine, Danser canal historique, 22.6.2024

Arkadi Zaides is acclaimed for his theatre and dance pieces that combine documentary and choreographic practice. In his work ‘The Cloud’, he draws parallels between two types of cloud – the data cloud that feeds AI systems and one of the greatest disasters in human history: on 26 April 1986 a reactor exploded at Chernobyl nuclear power station. However, the accident was not reported on Soviet television until two days later and the world only became aware of the scale of the disaster when its radioactive cloud spread across the whole of Europe. Zaides’s family lived on what is now the border between Belarus and Ukraine, in one of the areas most severely contaminated with radiation, and following the accident they left the Soviet Union. The nature of the disaster and the toxic cloud that spread from it still defy the bounds of the human imagination. And it is here where Zaides sees a virulent connection to the present – with the far-reaching possibilities and dangers of new technologies that are difficult to comprehend, and which are fuelled by the masses of data stored in the cloud. This “cloud”, in the form of an Artificial Intelligence programmed purely for this work, will influence the events on stage each evening new and unpredictable ways. In ‘The Cloud’, Zaides presents a compelling and intense performance, in which past and present, facts and fake news are caught up in an alarming vortex.

Dates

28 June, 21:00
29 June, 19:00

Tickets

Regular price: 16 €
Reduced price: 11 €
Supporters' price: 25 €
Minimum price: 6 €

→ Ticket shop

Venue

TanzFaktur, Cologne

Duration

65 minutes

Discussion

On 29.06., the performance will be followed by an aftertalk (in English).

Language

English, translation into German (via smartglasses)

Accessibility

Venue accessible for wheelchair users: Details per venue Toilet accessible for wheelchair users: Details per venue Venue accessible for people with walking disabilities: Details per venue Surtitles/Subtitles: Details per event Content note: Details per event

Age recommendation: from 16 years