Hong Kong is the backdrop for Der Fensterputzer. The set consists of a 20-foot-high hill of red silk flowers in one corner alluding to the city’s geography from the outset.

Pina Bausch integrates fragments of Hong Kong life - the mountain of red bauhinia flowers, the rope bridge, the karaoke, and the crowded people-and-bicycle-filled streets - whilst retaining well-known theatrical tropes: the vintage dresses, the stiletto heels, the obsessions with cleaning and sweeping. Her beautiful and sometimes disturbing images anticipate the horror or delight of recognising the self within its own dark world.

As one once was, maybe as a child, with all the desire to create one’s own worlds and destroy them again – here lies all the power to start off anew.

Texts by Norbert Servos

By Pina Bausch in co-production with the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society and Goethe-Institut Hong Kong. Premiere 12 February 1997.

Part of World Cities 2012

In association with Cultural Industry