Pogo Bar Podcast:
Thea Reifler and Phila Bergmann
Truth is a Matter of the Imagination
March 2021
in English
Image: Courtesy the artists; Photo: Rasmus Bell
For Truth is a Matter of the Imagination, Thea Reifler and Phila Bergmann invited Lou Drago, Isabel Lewis, Ann Mbuti and Omsk Social Club for exchanges of thoughts departing from science fiction quotes. They sat down to talk about how the genre has influenced their ways of thinking, relating, creating art and programming institutions. Within the conversations, they discuss how it changed their perceptions of truth and fiction, dreamtime and world-time, structures and processes as well as change and collaboration. The podcast’s tone is tentative, probing, searching—it presents thoughts that are explored together and conversations that find neither certainty nor a conclusion.
With quotes by: Judith Butler, Octavia E. Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor and Ursula K. Le Guin, as well as text parts inspired by Marge Piercy
Voices (in order of appearance from the beginning of the podcast): Thea Reifler, Phila Bergmann, Omsk Social Club, Lou Drago, Ann Mbuti, Isabel Lewis
Editing and Sound: Kat Merten
Special thanks to: Lou Drago, Isabel Lewis, Ann Mbuti and Omsk Social Club
Thea Reifler (CH) und Phila Bergmann (DE) work as curators and artists in music theater, opera and performance. In the last years they developed and engaged in interdisciplinary projects inspired by queer-feminist concepts. Since 2020, they are the artistic directors of Shedhalle Zürich. With their concept PROTOZONES 2020-2025 they are establishing Shedhalle as an institution for process based art.
Reifler and Bergmann previously showed work at Museum Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart—Berlin; 3HD-Festival, Berlin; Sophiensaele, Berlin; radialsystem, Berlin; Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Zürich; SpielArt-Festival, Munich; Nowy-Teatr, Warschau; HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts, Dresden; and Opera Darmstadt.