Gob Squad

The enthusiasts of everyday life perform a rousing portrait of 21stcentury society based on one of the least-watched videos on youtube.

When Tom Stromberg curated a theater program at documenta X in 1997, he included a short piece called 15 MINUTES TO COMPLY by a relatively unknown group called Gob Squad. It launched an unparalleled theatrical career that has since played out on streets, squares and stages. The German-English collective took a big part in establishing performance as an art form in Europe with their melancholic interventions – involving video, pop culture and fake theatrics – into contemporary life. Four years after their last show at Kampnagel, Gob Squad brings WESTERN SOCIETY to the Summerfestival. Their piece zooms in on the very heart of Western civilization: It focuses on an unremarkable youtube video in which a family eats cake and sings karaoke in a living room somewhere on the edge of the Western world. Gob Squad has turned it into a profound and touching self-portrait of our contemporary digital era. The performers reenact the video and party on stage with the help of the audience, thus transforming a banal and everyday document into a simultaneously sad and beautiful reflection of our collective desires, dreams and needs.