VOX MUNDI – Jul 2022
spatial design and performance concept for a performance installation

Developed on commission by the Berliner Ensemble
and the Komische Oper Berlin
Berlin, Germany

for and with:
Performance concept and acting direction: Yeşim Keim Schaub
Dramaturgy and text: Fabienne Dürr
Musical direction: Lisa Pottstock
Spatial design: Felicia Riegel
Costume design: Marthe Labes
Composition: Catalina Rueda

The performance installation VOX MUNDI invites the audience to step into a meticulously choreographed simulation of our future world — a kind of time machine regulated by the rhythm of a live orchestra positioned at the center of the space. Seated on a rotating platform, the musicians set the pulse of the piece: as the platform turns, small groups of audience members enter the simulated earth at different temporal moments, moving through seven circularly arranged rooms. In each of these immersive zones, they encounter non-player characters (performers) inhabiting worlds shaped by escalating environmental collapse.

A complex system of projections, sound, and automated cues synchronizes audience movement, creating a seamless, one-hour experience in which live performance and technology intertwine. Within this structure, a narrative unfolds around a scientist who claims to have discovered a way to reverse the damage inflicted on the planet. At first, the audience believes they must manipulate the rotating platform — and thus the time system — to carry this invention into the past and avert destruction. But gradually, the realization dawns that it is not the invention itself, but the belief in a solution, now carried within the audience, that holds the potential to alter the course of the future.

VOX MUNDI probes questions of agency and psychological placebo effects, the power of prediction, and the contrasting logics of simulated and real worlds. By weaving together immersive architecture, live music, and interactive narrative, the work transforms theatre into a living, temporal experiment — a collective exploration of hope, illusion, and responsibility in the face of collapse.