SIZE OF COMPANY
8 on the road

SCALE OF VENUE
Small- to middle-scale

PERMANENT STAFF
Artists
Johanna Freiburg
Sean Patten
Berit Stumpf
Sarah Thom
Bastian Trost
Simon Will

Administrator
Eva Hartmaan

Producer
Ayla Suveren

ARTISTIC POLICY
Gob Squad is a collective that has been working together since1994. Characterised by a desire to place the beautiful in the mundane, its performances often site home made magic and spectacle next to the banality of everyday life. Quoting a dizzying range of cultural sources, the collective’s work playfully looks at the construction of contemporary identity with humour that entertains and provokes. Rather than passively consuming, Gob Squad audiences often take active roles that create special relationships to the art works.

REVIEW EXTRACTS
‘Gob Squad engage us in masterful dance between the historical and the contemporary… thoroughly entertaining, full of irony and intelligence.’ Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin (Kitchen)

‘Kitchen sets itself at an ironic, reflective distance from the pathos of the 60s yet at the same time is a very accurate reconstruction of Warhol’s Work. A brilliant show, full of wit, life and humanity.’ Der Standard, Vienna (Kitchen)

‘Enigmatic, almost hypnotic… the charismatic actors make the show’s well-worn themes seem as fresh as newly changed linen.’ The Sunday Times (Room Service)

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good) Live interactive film. It’s 1965 – everything is about to happen. Gob Squad takes the hand of the King of Pop, Andy Warhol, transporting audiences to New York underground cinema. (100 mins, no internal, 4 on stage, 7 on the road.)

Super Night Shot One hour before the audience arrive, Gob Squad hits the streets. Their cause? The War on anonymity. Choice of weapon? Video cameras. Mission? To produce a moment of pure emotion and passion. (60 mins, no interval, 4 on stage, 5 on the road.)

King Kong Club A place for encounters in which audiences become part of a strange film, both its actors and audience. (120 mins, plus interval, 5 on stage, 8 on the road.)

Room Service (Help Me Make It Through The Night) Live interactive film set in a hotel. Gob Squad expounds and explodes the now familiar concept of reality TV in this compelling and intimate durational show. (300 mins, durational, no interval, 4 on stage, 8 on the road.)

FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
Saving The World 360 degree panoramic film. Gob squad takes a city square and all the people passing through it as a microcosm for the entire world. Can they save it before the tape runs out?

Future Slums: My Own Private Idyll From favelas in Rio, workers tiny gardens in Frankfurt to the stately homes of England, a wide reaching series of interventions drawing on improvised architecture, vegetable gardening and class war. (2009-10)

Now Fly Forthcoming video instillation (2008-09)

Future Slums: My Own Private Idyll From Rio favelas, Frankfurt workers tiny gardens to the stately homes of England, Future Slums is a wide reaching series of interventions drawing on improvised architecture, vegetable gardening and class war. (2009-10)

WRAP-AROUND
Workshops and Illustrated lectures are tailor made for participants, designed to suit specific festival themes or educational syllabi. Workshops of three to ten days for up to 15 people are aimed at participants from performance, live art, new media, video and visual arts backgrounds. Using a hands-on approach, Gob Squad demystifies its working process and shares experiences with participants, encouraging them to play with the tools and vocabulary that the company uses to produce work. In addition, the company offers lectures on research methodologies, site-related work, urban intervention, working collaboratively and interactive performance. As with its performances and installations, Gob Squad places high value on the aesthetic elements of its lectures, using film and photographic documentation from past and present work throughout.

RECENT INTERNATIONAL WORK
2007 Austria (Kitchen), France (King Kong Club), Latvia (Room Service), USA (Super Night Shot)
2006 Brazil (Super Night Shot)

TOURING AVAILABILITY
Super Night Shot/Gob Squad’s Kitchen/Room Service/King Kong Club from spring 2008