Interspecies Feast

In the urban space of Görlitz, I was drawn to a fountain featuring bronze figures of a girl, a dog, and a tea set. The scene struck me with its ambiguity. The expressive movement of the girl on the pedestal, with her hand raised towards the sky, and the dog sitting on a chair in the water evoked carefree fun. However, I couldn't shake the associations with floods, where people and animals strive to save themselves from rising waters.

Eventually, I discovered that the fountain commemorates the legendary Fledermaus Café (Bat Café), which once occupied this site. This fact, in light of this year's festival theme "Now NonHuman," made me ponder how quickly nature reclaims spaces abandoned by humans. Perhaps, when people are no longer on the planet, bats will find a home in cafés.

photo: Sascha Röhricht

Pigeons seemed content to linger near the fountain, hoping for food scraps left by passersby. In this setting, seeds — edible for both humans and birds — became a vital element of the performance.

The performance drew inspiration from these reflections, as well as from the cross-border essence of the city, where German, Polish, and several other languages resonate in the streets. I incorporated texts in different languages into my action. On kitchen boards, from which I offered seeds to viewers and passersby, I wrote "interspecies feast." From recycled plywood, I created banners with the slogan "United we stand, divided we fall," a phrase used in various contexts for 200 years.

With the banner "Bats Matter," I set off into the city...

photo: Sascha Röhricht