PICASSO –HANS KRESNIK’S CHOREOGRAPHIC THEATRE

Berlin’s Volksbuhne, is situated in Rosa Luxemburg-Platz, a relatively small place, in comparison to the big avenue which bears the name of her partner and comrade Karl Libcknecht…The name itself of the location of the theatre, (Clara Tsetkin is not very far away), shows that the Volksbuhne is in the former “East” Berlin. Mitte, the name of the area, once more melancholic and neglected, now a rather fashionable place, at least for young people, artists and alternative cultures, presents the tourist with differences in style: Volksbuhne, in Rosa Luxemburg-Platz is a big theatre, with a big stage, spacious entrance and corridors, combined with the atmosphere of an once prestigious or even glamorous venue. 
Probably not so much for its luxury, or not this alone, but rather for the spectacles that it hosted (quality in essence), a lot more so, since it was situated in the heart of the “east part of the city”, in the middle of a complex of streets, vindicating with their names, the wrongly lost “revolutionaries”-victims of the ruthless German state.
In this venue, Hans Kresnik, an historic figure of Tanztheater (Dancetheatre), presented his work titled Picasso. Centred around his work, stylistic and creative periods as well as his relationships with the most important women of his life, it succeded at presenting the interrelationship between the two, stressing the importance of love in the artist’s life, his possible cruelty to his women, the precedence of his art in his life (his alter ego, painting, or his art, more generally, was depicted by a young female dancing topless, intervening in his life as if showing his vocation or supporting him in times of crisis and lack of creativity, or after unfortunate events in his personal life, providing him with emotional shelter and comfort). 
Kresnik also showed via surrealistic and dramatic images (nudity, violence) the stages and changes in his painting, the musicians, the famous Guernica (the lamp coming from the ceiling, the head of the horse, always though using these elements which are taken from his canvases, as suitable objects in order to depict a certain emotional stage of the artist), his gradual abandoning of representational painting for simpler forms, his sketches et.c. Kresnik’s many Picassos, in order to depict a multi-faceted personality and life, end-up in the one old painter, as we have probably seen him on his rocking chair. And then, what is left after he is gone? 
His art, seems to be the answer in Picasso, which is unique, flamboyant and bears the fiery and free spirit of the artist who created it. It would be too didactic, (the stand of the canvas hanging in the air on fire), if Kresnik together with Warhol and Beyus-alikes, did not appear on the back of the stage, with “Andy” taking pictures with flash!
Overubandance of material, admiration, nudity, violence and of a will to shock, a little old material, but a lot of inspiration also, made Picasso, worth watching…Slightly predictable, but enjoyable (still) and lively, it still made the eye to those thinking that Tanztheater has gone straight.

Berlin, 2002