Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Performance · 2025

Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Scenic Installation with Drawings and Texts by Erna Pinner

This scenic installation follows the life and exile of Frankfurt-born Jewish illustrator and writer Erna Pinner (1890–1987). An international, interdisciplinary team translates her legacy into a living space of performance, music, video, and memory.

Visitors drift through key stations of Pinner’s journey: the realm of animals, oceans of misunderstanding, the quiet paths of adaptation and resilience. Visual fragments, original texts, and performative moments become a landscape to walk through — not to observe from outside, but to enter.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

7 Spaces - 1 text

A museal journey into Erna Pinner's texts, life, love and exile

An artist forced to leave her homeland. A new country — cold, fog-bound, unfamiliar. Work as survival. Letters to the few friends who remained alive. Solitude turned into creative force. A deeper trust in animals than in people.

Never mind, everyone muddles through.

Space 1 – Archive

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Texts from her books, letters to her beloved, photographs spanning a lifetime. A quiet place to read, to witness.

Space 2 – Spoken Word and Visual Mapping

Her words abstracted, fused with voice and music. A musical rendition of Pinner’s own language. The texts were reworked by Syrian Artist Abdulaziz Khayyat, and were accompanied by a visual mapping of Erna Pinner’s drawings.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Space 3 – Urlaub

A sound healing journey through her Italy vacations. Nature sounds, acoustic instruments, tuning forks. A room for resting alongside her.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Space 4 – London

Cold, blue, foggy. An experimental performance on exile and alienation. The damp of an unfamiliar city.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Space 5 – Room in Frankfurt

A small performative installation of where she once was.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Space 6 – Light Installation

Abstract fragments of texts turned into light.

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Space 7 – Ocean of Misunderstandings

• View image

  Ein Fisch der auf dem Trockenen Schwimmt

Visual Mapping Research

Details

Location: Milchsackfabrik, Landungsbrücken Theatre, Frankfurt, 2025

Format: Scenic, Installative Performance

Collaborators

• Research & Direction — Martha Kottwitz
• Dramaturgy — Friederike Weidner
• Tech Art, Sound and Light Installations — Omar Tarawneh
• Scenography and Costumes — Devin McDonough
• Music — Omar Tarawneh
• Music — Abdul Aziz Al Khayat
• Performers — Anastasiia Struzhak
• Performers — Abdul Aziz Al Khayat
• Performers — Anne Greta Weber
• Photography — Jessica Schäfer
• Technical Assistance — Alwin Wilbert
• Assistant — Ana Eskander