Almost all people love and are loved - in the family, in friendships, in communities or in romantic relationships.
Most people also have to or want to work. We therefore move fluidly between two spheres, which take up more or less space in our life, and we therefore influence one another. In both spheres, we have expectations; we have to follow rules and comply with circumstances. This can lead to tensions and contradictions. However, the intertwining of the two spheres can also unleash unexpected forces and inspire us, so that we can love more creatively or work more caringly.
We understand love as an all-encompassing feeling and assume, that we are capable of loving many people at the same time. We feel love for our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children, and our friends, as well as in romantic relationships. Love is experienced from others or is demanded from us, and sometimes it is not returned. We understand love as an act of free will and interaction.
In this research work, we are interested in all forms of the expression of love. We believe that everyone, who takes part in our research work, has their own ideas about what love is, how it is lived, and we hope to explore a broad spectrum in this.
Romantic love is given great emphasis in the Western Hemisphere, in high culture as well as in entertainment and pop culture. We are flooded with images in the media, as well as contradictory opinions and supposed knowledge about our "roles as loving partners". The conditions of love in all its forms are also constantly changing. We are more free in our choice of partner, and live our relationships on a more equal footing than our parents or grandparents did. At the same time, romantic ideas and expectations also hide how capitalist conditions influence our love lives. We have high expectations of ourselves in terms of how and whom we should love and blame ourselves when these relationships fail.
The meaning of work and what working actually is, is constantly changing. Many people work not only for money, but also for self-worth and social esteem, which is measured more than ever by occupational success. Some occupations are losing economic and social value, while others are becoming more important to society.
There are many, who work unpaid, often out of love or because of family obligations. Mostly, these are women, who become emotionally and financially dependent as a result. For many, their working schedule is not limited just to eight hours a day and five days a week, because permanent availability is asked of them. But then, there are also some persons, who earn well, but give little in return.
Without knowing it, we also work in our free time and actually remain unpaid for it: while enjoying ourselves on social media, we create a surplus value, from which big corporations profit.
When we are working, we often move in social spheres. Politics, the rules of the labour market and the globalised market economy at large shape the world of our work.
On the other hand, we think of our love life as a private sphere, because conflicts and problems in partnerships, friendships and families are usually thought of as individual situations. This is a sensitive area. We are in fact moving in a web of entanglements and are unprotected as individuals. By questioning how the public and private spheres relate to each other, we examine effects, which should not only be seen as individual and private, but are always also political.
The ‘Travelling Theatre’ LOVE**WORK provides a safe space to report about this sensitive, supposedly private sphere and the interactions with the public and the regulated area of work. The experiences shared as part of the research work will remain anonymous in the production process. Through this transfer, the personal and individual becomes a universal and collective experience. The effects of activities Mechanisms and relations between the two spheres are shared in a common space and personal experiences can be understood in a social context. This research work empowers everyone to be part of this process and not just an observer.
We invite you to share your own experiences and thoughts on the positive and negative interactions between love and the work. You decide whether you want to write to us anonymously or with your name and e-mail address. The collected stories will become part of our production, the premiere will take place in February 2025 in the Fabriktheater Roten Fabrik.
Trixa Arnold and Ilja Komarov – artistic co-directors, Idea
they have been bringing musical theatre projects to the stage together since 2007. Their productions are characterised by an expressly approachable touch, as well as by a poetic and pleasurable approach to socially relevant topics. Even problematic material is presented unpretentiously in their work. They function from the conviction, that the political also manifests itself in everyday life and its activities. They are currently working with orally communicated traditions and memories, which they collect, condense and put on stage to express specific themes. Music is an important part of their productions. They follow their artistic path consistently, and their work spans a variety of different formats. They have worked closely with Marisa Godoy, ‘Kraut_produktion’, Massimo Furlan, Corsin Gaudenz and Annas Kollektiv, among others, for many years. From 2001 to 2003 they spent time in St. Petersburg on independent music scholarships. Their work SHAME ON YOU! was shown at the Edinburgh 2022 Fringe Festival as part of the Swiss Selection of Pro Helvetia.
Trixa Arnold – Direction, play, text
works as a musician for theatre, dance and film. In her own artistic projects, she takes on the role of director or ‘dramaturge’ and sometimes also performs on stage as a musician. As a DJ, she puts records on the turntable in old people's rest homes and is also touring with her show "Every record is a good record". In the 90s, she toured Europe with pop bands for a decade. She has played and improvised with Simon Dellsperger, Judy Dunaway, Vjatcheslav Gayvoronsky, Yoshio Machida, Co Streif, Strotter Inst., Tomas Korber, Claudia Binder, Irene Schweizer and Marie Cecile Reber, among others. She previously studied architecture. She now resides in Zurich, Switzerland.
Ilja Komarov – Play, composition
works as a composer, dancer and actor for theatre, dance and film. He composes the music for his own artistic projects and performs on stage as a musician and actor. Since graduating as an ‘Alexander Technique’ Teacher in 2014, he has been an instructor in his own professional practice. For 20 years, he toured the world intensively as a bassist and singer with the Russian band Ne Zhdali and swiss trio Les Halmas among others. After studying double bass at the University of Music in Tallinn, he was engaged as a musician and actor at the ‘Russian Drama Theatre’ in Tallinn, Estonia. He now resides in Zurich, Switzerland.
Anna Cherepanova and Vitalii Cherepanov (CickinDunt) – Visual design, equipment
explore operations and fluctuations in art, science and philosophy using different media and disciplines. They develop their projects as test models for critical interaction with the environment and consider the artistic gesture as a possible application in this present context. They perceive the world as a source of equal collaborations between different agents and substances, and term this “Park Volny". Their practice includes collective performances, street art, digital art, installations, video art, music, stage design, sculpture and painting. They work together or as independent authors under different pseudonyms (CickinDunt, Shaboffice, Infinite Private Sector, etc.) Their work is presented in galleries and museums in Germany, Austria, U.S.A., Switzerland and Russia.
Scholarships, prizes and residencies:
2023 "Summer School for Socially Engaged Arts" at the ‘artasfoundation’, Zurich, Switzerland,
2023 "Furka Retreat Residency" Furkart, Switzerland,
2023 Research Grant from the Goethe Institute for "Park Volny",
2022 Travel Grant from the Goethe Institute for "Theatre Under the Cameras".
Anna Cherepanova
studied at the Faculty of Arts of the Social Pedagogical Academy in Nizhny Tagil, Russia and graduated in 2013. She now resides in Berlin, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland.
Vitalii Cherepanov studied at the Faculty of Art and Graphics at the Social Pedagogical Academy in Nizhny Tagil, Russia and graduated without a diploma. He now resides in Berlin, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland.
Anissa Maizi – Assistant communication and production, responsible for the Website
is interested in matters of cultural identity, social-political matters and their expression in various art forms. She took part in cultural projects such as the ‘Quartierzeit Association’ and the ‘Short Film Festival’ in Berne, Switzerland. In 2022-2023 she attended the Art School Metàfora Studio Arts in Barcelona, Spain, and has been producing her own video works since then. She has however also worked for several years in marketing, communication and advertising. After completing a commercial assistant apprenticeship, she trained as a communications planner, copywriter and graphic designer. She now resides in Berne, Switzerland.
Gabriela Stöckli – Collaboration on concept and texts
is interested in translation as an indispensable cultural practice and in multilingualism in literature and in all artistic contexts.
Since 2005, she has run the Looren Translators' House in Wernetshausen (Canton Zurich, Switzerland) and lobbies for literary translation as a word art, organises further training and is an ‘anchor’ at literary events. She has translated several children's books from Spanish. She studied literature in Zurich, Switzerland, specialising in Latin American Studies, as well as in Madrid and Berlin. She now resides in Zurich, Switzerland.
Regula Schelling – Dramaturgy, collaboration on concept, production management, diffusion
is co-founder and co-director of ‘Theater Süd’. Since the summer of 2019 she has been working as a production manager at ‘produktionsDOCK’ in Basel, Switzerland for Jeremy Nedd, Alexandra Bachzetsis and Ariane Andereggen, among others. She has been managing director of ‘Supervistas’ since 2020/21. In 2019 she worked in the Operations Agency at the ‘auawirleben Theatre Festival’ and was interim co-director of ‘Voyeure’, Berne, Switzerland. She has completed numerous internships and directing-/ dramaturgy assistantships, including the ‘Schauspielhaus Theatre Zürich’, ‘Junges Theater’, Solothurn, intercultural ‘MAXIM Theatre Zürich’, ‘Junges Konzert Theater’, Berne, Switzerland, and in the programme department of the Goethe-Institut, Bucharest, Hungary. She studied theatre and dance studies and German language and literature at the University of Berne, Switzerland. She now resides in Basel, Switzerland.
Co-producers
Fabriktheater, Rote Fabrik Zürich
Kulturhaus Helferei, Zürich
Millers, Zürich
Tojo Theater, Bern
WORM Kulturzentrum, Rotterdam
We would like to thank the following for their support
City of Zurich Culture, Canton of Zurich Culture Department, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council.
Freies Musiktheater Zürich
c/o Trixa Arnold
Ritterstrasse 8
8032 Zürich
Finanzielle Unterstützung:
