SLOP. Based on research into GDR action art by the Auto-Perforations artists

Premiere on October 3 (Saturday) at 8 p.m.
Additional performance on October 4 (Sunday) at 8 p.m.

A performance in English and German language
Duration: approx. 2 hours

Tickets are available at the Societätstheater ticket shop!
The Box-office is open one hour before the start of the performance (at the robotron-Kantine)

“Slop” is the U.S. Word of the Year for 2025. Originally meaning mud, wet garbage, or slop, it is now used in reference to massive amounts of AI-generated internet junk. Drawing on the visual cultures of the new digital age, the performance SLOP explores their relationship to the radical, animalistic art of the auto-perforation artists. Defying bans, they carved out a niche for performance art in tranquil Dresden during the 1980s. Far removed from Socialist Realism and the state-sanctioned culture of the GDR, they created subversive images of resistance by pushing the limits of their own bodies. Inspired by archival materials, conversations with the artist collective from that era, and a flood of internet content, SLOP poses the performative question: What can still challenge us today? What images can we create in an age where visibility, digital performance, and self-optimization have become the currency?

Claudia Reichardt, a Dresden-based gallery owner and art educator who passed away in 2021 and was known as Wanda, was a longtime supporter of the Auto-Perforation artists. The exhibition “Wanda, Villa, and Change,” which opens on September 7, 2026, at the Dresden City Archives, is a retrospective dedicated to her work and legacy. She provided the impetus to explore Dresden’s past, the GDR, and the themes of performance art, artistic freedom, bodily boundaries, and risk—and to bring the results of this research to the stage. The Dresden-based artists Caroline Beach, Eva Jaekel, Josef Panda, and Casey Ouzounis, who come from various disciplines within the performing arts, are bringing this project to life.