In retrospect World War One was the last war that began with a formal declaration of war. Today the dramaturgy of starting military hostilities by a performative act has become anachronistic. Instead a period of ‘international civil war’ has begun which did not end in 1918/19 nor in 1945, possibly not even with the end of the Cold War.
How to end a war which has never been declared? andcompany&Co. play on language, sample meanings and tinker images. In their lecture-concert, which is especially devised for the festivalsTheaterformen (Braunschweig) and LIFT (London), they start off on the double-meaning of the German word Kriegserklärung, which signifies a declaration of war but at the same time the explanation of war, and they look for the relationship between performance art and the art of warfare. andcompany&Co. create a sound of battle with space for many voices – maybe an alternative to the so-called ‚concert of European powers’.