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[sic]nals – liminoid

liminoid initiates ritualized processes in the Baptistery of Cologne Cathedral. Three musicians/performers explore the formerly sacred space – today a profane space of archaeological interest –, that mediates between Cologne Cathedral and the bustling pedestrian zone. Visitors are invited to explore moments of in-between with the musicians/performers. The musical starting point is the Lutheran hymn “I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ”. Various baroque arrangements of the piece, including those by Johann Sebastian Bach, will be used as material for musical construction and deconstruction, allowing the musicians to improvise together.

Victor Turner (1920-1983) borrowed the term ‘liminal phase’ (lat. Limen - the threshold) from ethnological studies on rites of passage and modified it for the theatre of ‘complex’, ‘post-industrial societies’. According to Turner, performance moments, understood as ‘liminoid processes’ (‘resembling liminal phenomena without being like them’), have the potential to act as an ‘independent and critical source’ in relation to currently binding social orders:
But how can the possibly transformative potential of such threshold phases have a lasting effect across performance situations? What agency do performers, visitors and objects of the performance have and how can they continue to communicate with each other after the end of the performance?
(Victor Turner, Vom Ritual zum Theater/From Ritual to Theatre. The Human Seriousness of Play.)

Part of the performance of liminoid is a sounding object that is activated by a performer at the end of the performance. Like a wind-up music box, it cannot be stopped at will for a certain period of time. Towards the end of the performance, three of these sounding objects will be handed over to people from the audience. They are asked to bring it to a collection point that can only be reached by passing through the public space. Fragments of the performance sound from the three objects. The sound of the three objects intertwines.

2022 Original-Klang Festival FEL!X Köln