The Hallo e.V. is a cultural association and network that creates welfare-oriented urban spaces and cultural productions. It has provided me with a space for experimentation, culture creation, and networking for many years. However, after seven years, Hallo had to leave its place of residence, the Schaltzentrale, because the owners decided to sell the site located in a flourishing neighbourhood in Hamburg to investors.

'Das Moritat vom Haifisch’ was a participatory performance and public intervention in which the funeral of the Schaltzentrale was enacted. This served, on one hand, to provide the network of audiences and cultural workers a platform to mourn and, on the other hand, to draw attention to the displacement of culture by profit-oriented investors and gentrification.

Watch the video documentation here

For this action, we created a fictional narrative about a shark living in the Bille River behind the Schaltzentrale. In urban slang, real estate speculators and morally deficient people are often referred to as sharks. Days before the performance, we installed signs informing and warning the public about it. The procession to the funeral was led by a fictional director of the Schaltzentrale who decided to turn it into a profitable tourist attraction.

The director, and later the entire audience, performed the song 'Das Moritat vom Haifisch,' whose lyrics tell the story of the negotiations around the Schaltzentrale. This song is an adaptation of 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer' ('Mack the Knife’) from 'Die Dreigroschenoper’ ('The Threepenny Opera’) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Collaboration with the choreographer Ari Adamski and the Hallo e.V. 

Performers: Valentin Allerding, Luka Zimmer, Julia Marie Englert, Ada Grüter, Dshamila Bücher, Ari Adamski, Sophie Allerding Video: Rupert Caminneci Photo: Antje Sauer

For more information, visit HALLO