Der Mensch
erscheint im Holozän

As part of the Streamy Thursday series, we present the 3sat recording on January 7, 2021, followed by a live discussion on Zoom, at 9pm on this site (for free).

A mountain slides and someone loses their memory. Such is the reduced framework of Max Frisch's story Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän, which was published 40 years ago. Both, the protagonist Herr Geiser and the mountain gently drift into oblivion. The catastrophe lasts and beauty can be found in it. Under an almost tender gaze, the human being and dementia sufferer Mr. Geiser disappears in the narrative - and instead of the earth's mass, a self is slowly eroding here. Alexander Giesche's staging, which oscillates in its aesthetics between the virtual and the analog, between simulation and the all too real, makes the beauty of a catastrophe and its potential for healing palpable. And it poses the question of whether recognizing one's own finiteness might not also facilitate a new beginning.