Why One Woman Plans to Walk Into a Cage of Tigers in the Middle of Berlin

BY BHAVYA DORE 

A performative political art event in Berlin is hoping to highlight how European leaders are playing with human lives in a refugee crisis where survival is a daily battle and desperation has been propelling people into dangerous and suicidal situations.

As part of a performative art piece, one woman will enter the tigers’ cage. Credit: Patryk Witt/Centre for Political Beauty

Berlin: The tigers hung back in the shade, lolling under the cover of the roof as the noonday sun beat down in the heart of Berlin. Around them the makeshift cage was wrapped on the outside in black banners with the words emblazoned in white: flüchtlinge fressen or ‘Devour Refugees’.

On the evening of June 28, the four tigers are scheduled to do precisely that: take a bite out of a refugee. In a piece of performative political art aimed at shining a light on the refugee situation, the Centre for Political Beauty will be staging this event outside the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The set-up has been in place since June 16.

So what exactly is the point of this seemingly bizarre piece of theatre that involves risking a human life? That, claims the group, is precisely the point: highlighting how European leaders are playing with human lives in a refugee crisis where survival is a daily battle and desperation has been propelling people into dangerous and suicidal situations.

On June 27, hours before the art piece was to reach its climax, the tigers seemed indifferent to the human brouhaha on the outside near Dorotheenstrasse, in the middle of the city. Tourists and onlookers milled around and loudspeakers repeatedly made announcements in German about the group’s message.

Outside the cage, another large red banner bore a question in German: “Mamma, why don’t the refugees fly on planes?” The group’s performance piece sprang from this very question. The answer to it lies at the heart of everything the group is protesting against. Fifteen years ago, the European Council passed a directive effectively disallowing transportation companies from carrying passengers without valid visas into the EU.

“It is the law that has forced hundreds of thousands to undertake the dangerous journey by boat,” said a press note from the group. “To the artists this is a brutal game with the fates of refugees. They show the EU and the German federal government as modern Roman emperors, forcing people to flee into the arena of a struggle for survival”.

The aim of the piece is to prompt discussions. “What we want to do with this drastic action is bring this paragraph of the law to the public and have people talk about it,” said Cesy Leonard, chief of staff for the Centre of Political Beauty.

The performance piece, a morbid reality show of a kind, contains within it echoes of gladiatorial Rome: a lone person will walk into the animals’ lair as the crowd looks on. “We are in 2016 and living in a more humane Europe but the state is just as dreadful as it used to be 2000 years ago,” said Leonard. “Europe is watching while people are dying.”

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