Weinheim | Perpetuum
PERPETUUM
City without hardship.
A groundbreaking discovery lets mankind dare an urban utopia. The reason: the complete plan of a perpetual motion machine has been found. The inventor is Johann Bessler alias Orffyreus - medicus, mechanicus and alchemist of the early 18th century. Once triggered, his "eternal wheel" once turned for many weeks.
Theatre ANU stages a city without hardship.
The futurist Paul Scheerbart envisions his idea of the “Perpeh” by means of a crazy projection apparatus. In an impressive experiment, visitors can admire the so-called “butterfly effect”. And in front of a large cross, “Frau Mehr” ponders about a world that no longer needs God.
Science has long since banished perpetual motion to the realm of the impossible. Yet still: don’t we already live in a perpetual world wheel that, once set in motion, can no longer be stopped and produces a “more” of everything?
This profound and pictorial cycle presents six poetic views from the fields of religion, art, science, futuristic visions and history, raising the question of the city of the future. How can the social human being live in a future community if everything that surrounds it is only designed for the well-being of individuals?