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“unter dem Vorwand eines Prozesses eine ‚Schweiz‘ zusammenzubauen, die in dieser Verdichtung unmöglich ist, die nicht existiert”  Milo Rau‘s Zürcher Prozesse

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Abstract

In May 2013 Milo Rau staged the Züricher Prozesse at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich. In the “Trial Show” with open ending, the bi-weekly journal Weltwoche was accused of racism. The paper analyzes the Zürcher Prozesse through an approach that perceives the staging as an experiment, that fictitiously plays out the possible consequences of political (non- and in-)action, interventions and agency on stage rendering them thus visible, and opening a space for reflections. Additionally, I will focus on the concept of propaganda, since Rau highlights it time and again as fundamentally important for his work. The triangulation of a) trial show, b) experiment and c) propaganda makes it possible to tease out the paradoxes and ambivalences of the genre of the courtroom drama / trial show at large and more specific in the staging of Züricher Prozesse, and allows me to inquire what (if any) the political aspirations and dimensions of Rau’s trial show / courtroom drama can be.

Keywords: Milo Rau, Zürcher Prozesse, Experiment, Trial Show

How to Cite:

Nusser, T., (2025) ““unter dem Vorwand eines Prozesses eine ‚Schweiz‘ zusammenzubauen, die in dieser Verdichtung unmöglich ist, die nicht existiert”  Milo Rau‘s Zürcher Prozesse”, Documenta 43(1): 7, 181–208. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/documenta.93855