+++ THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED +++

Live-streaming performance

Hypericin is a phytochemical produced by the flowering plant St John’s wort. “The Great St. John’s Wort Coalition” was the headline of a taz article in 1997. It reported on a health-political scandal during the late years of the Bonner Republic, at the height of the AIDS epidemic: a study investigating hypericin as a treatment for HIV received government support, while other critical AIDS research and care efforts remained severely underfunded. St. John’s wort, known for its antidepressant properties, became the subject of dubious research by a German herbalist into its potential as a cure for AIDS. By funding this controversial study, the Federal Ministry actively opposed patient-led activist structures.

In this livestream performance, presented at the festival and on drip-drop.tv, a yellow dripping screen saturated in St. John’s wort solution gradually transitions its colour to red. Both the UV light in the space and the herbal extract function as antidepressants; performers and audience become living photograms. During our research we came across Toronto Living With AIDS (TLWA), a 1990–91 public access cable TV programme that provided information about HIV/AIDS directly to affected communities, and we draw our inspiration from these informative TV sessions as well as from fragments of German investigative TV reports from the 1990s.

• Programm Programme: [Cancelled!] Live-Streaming Performance