Permanent Interests

Artun Alaska Arasli‘s Untitled is equal parts a poem, a theatrical monologue, and a performance about the relationship between the stage and the house. Through the push-and-pull of a navel-gazing “I” and an accusatory “you,” it chronicles the conditions of its own making.

Jan Kunkel’s Tuber and the Lumpen is a little one-act play that proceeds from a deceptively simple premise: reenactment is just reenactment. One person is asked to follow and mimetically render an absorbing train of thought, like a musician interpreting a score. But this reading, staging an ensemble of antagonistic voices, is always prone to breakdown. It‘s a kind of epic joke, whose punchline is that there isn’t one. The play’s minimal scenic framework consists only of a pair of gentleman’s shoes and a potato sack, both objects that bear material history and symbolic weight. Hinging on Brechtian Epic Theater (and its trivia), the piece draws from political economy and psychoanalysis to ask – again – what the potato might endure in the materialist imagination. Sound by Vera Karlsson and Jan Kunkel. Voice: Linda O. Elsner.

Artun Alaska Arasli is an artist and writer based in Amsterdam. He is the co-founder of Amsterdam Poet’s Theater.

Jan Kunkel works with language, objects, and their dissimulation. She is closely invested in the intricacies of economic and libidinal logics – how these domains might disattune from common notions of procurement and solo practice. Recent exhibitions and performances include Kunstverein München, Munich (2023); Studiengallerie 1.357, Frankfurt (2023); di volta in volta, Paris (2024); au JUS, Brussels (2025); Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2025); and Hours, Berlin (2025).

Linda O. Elsner is a performer and actress. She has worked with renowned artists such as SIGNA, Autumn Knight, LTwills, and Nils Amadeus Lange, while also pursuing her own independent projects. Currently an ensemble member at Schauspiel Dortmund, Elsner‘s recent lead role is as ‘Antigone’ (2025).

Vera Karlsson is currently based in Berlin. Through a multi-disciplinary practice, they work within collaborative initiatives and as solo artist.